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THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

'i 

UNDER 

THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 
1719-1776 



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THE HISTORY 



SOUTH CAROLINA 



UNDER THE 



KOYAL GOVERNMENT 
1719-1776 



BY 



EDWARD McCRADY 

A MEMBER OF THE BAR OF CHARLESTON, S.C, AND PRESIDENT 

OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

AUTHOR OF " A HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER THE 

PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT " 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1899 

All rights reserved 



COPTRIGHT, 1899, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



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Noriuooli l^xtsi 

3. S. Cushinn; & Co. - Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Muss. U.S.A. 



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>«-'<) '97 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND QUOTED 

Adair's History of American Indians. London, MDCCCXXV. 

Address of Hon. William A. Courtenay, Mayor. Centennial of Charles- 
ton, 1883. Year Book of Charlestown, 1883. 

Addresses of Wilmot G. De Saussure, President Cincinnati Society, 1883- 
1885. 

Address of W. C. Moragne. New Bordeaux, Abbeville, 1854. 

Address of J. J. Pringle Smith. Special Services held at St. Philip's 
Church, Charleston, S. C, in Commemoration of the Planting of 
the Church of England in the Province of Carolina. May, 1875. 

Alston, Hon. R. F. W. Reports to South Carolina Legislature upon 
Subject of Free Schools. 

American Commonwealths. James Bryce. 2 volumes. 1888. 

American Commonwealth Sei'ies. Horace E. Scudder. 

Maryland -. The History of a Palatinate. By William Hand Browne. 
New York: By Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, LL.D. 2 volumes. 
Virginia : A History of the People. By John Esten Cooke. 

American Encyclopedia. 

American Episcopal Church, History of. Bishop Perry. 2 volumes. 

American Historical Review. 

American Loyalists. By Lorenzo Sabine. MDCCCXLVII. 

Annual Register. 

Bancroft's History of the United States. Editions of 1852 and 1883. 

Baptist Church, Charleston, S. C, History of. 

Bartram's Travels. 

Belknap's Histoi-y of New Hampshire. 

British Empire in America. Oldmixon. 2 ed. MDCCXLL 

Bruce's Economic History of Virginia. 1896. 2 volumes. 

Ikirke's Peerage. 

Burke, Edmund, Works of. 

Carroll, B. R., Collections of. 2 volumes. 

Chalmer's History of the Revolt. 2 volumes. 

Cobb, Thomas R. R. On Slavery. 1858. 

Collections of Historical Society of South Carolina. 4 volumes. 

Colonial Records of North Carolina. Volumes I, II, and III. 

Commons Journals MS., Columbia, S. C. 

V 



CV 



VI AUTHORITIES QUOTED 

Connecticut, History of. Trumbull. 

Considerations on Certain Political Transactions of the Province of South 

Carolina. Sir Egerton Leigh. London, 1774. 
Council Journals MS., Columbia, S. C. 

Coxe's Description of the English Province of South Carolina. 
Coxe, W. Memoirs of Pelham's Administration. London, 1829. 
Cumberland, Richard. Memoirs of W. Mudford. London, 1812, 
Dalcho's Church History. 1820. 
Day on Cooper River. J. B. Irving. 
Diary of the American Revolution. Frank Moore, N. Y. Privately 

Printed, 1865. 
Documents connected with South Carolina. P. C. J. Weston. Printed 

for Private Distribution, 1856. 
Drayton, John. A View of South Carolina. 1802. 
Drayton, John. Memoirs of the Revolution. 2 volumes. 1821. 
Emancipation of Massachusetts. Brooks Adams. 1887. 
Encyclopedia Britannica and Supplement. 
Federalist, The. 
Florida, Forbe's History of. 
Florida, Robert's History of. 
Foote, Rev. W. H. Sketches of North Carolina. 
Freeman, &c.. The Letters of (William Henry Drayton). London. 

Printed in the Year MDCCLXXI. 
Gazette, The South Carolina. 1732-1775. 

Gazette, The South Carolina and American General. 1758-1775. 
Gazette, The South Carolina and Country Journal. 1765-1775. 
Gentleman's Magazine. Volume X. 1740. 

George III, Memoirs of the Regency of. H. Walpole. London, 1845. 
George IV, Memoirs of. 

Georgia, History of. Rt. Rev. W. Stevens. MDCCCXLVII. 2 volumes. 
German Settlements and the Lutheran Church in the Carolinas. Rev. 

G. D. Bernheim. 1872. 
Gibbers Documentary History of South Carolina. 1764-1776. 
Gordon, W. History of the American Revolution. 1788. 
Greg, Percy. History of the United States. 2 volumes. 1887. 
Gregg, Rt. Rev. Alexander. History of the Old Cheraws. 1867. 
Hawks, Rev. Alexander, D.D., LL.D. History of North Carolina. 

2 volumes. 1858. 
Hewatt, Rev. Alexander, D.D. An Historical Account of the Rise and 

Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. 2 vol- 
umes. 1779. 
Higher Education in South Carolina, History of. By Colyer Meriweather, 

A.B., U. S. Bureau of Education. 1889. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED Vll 

Hildreths, Richard. History of the United States of America. 3 volumes. 

1849. 
Howe, Rev. George, D.D. History of the Presbyterian Church in South 

Carolina. 1870. 
Hughson, Carter Shirley, Communication to Evening Post. 
Huguenots, The. Samuel Smiles. 1868. 
Johns Hopkins Studies. 

Government of the Colony of South Carolina. Edson L. Whitney, 

Ph.D., LL.B. 13 series, I, II. 1895. 
Local Government and Free Schools in South Carolina. James 
Ramage, A.B. XII. 1883. 
Johnson, Joseph, M.D. Traditions and Reminiscences of the American 

Revolution in the South. 1851. 
Johnson, Hon. William. Life and Correspondence of Nathaniel Greene. 

2 volumes. 1822. 
Judicial and Political Subdivisions in South Carolina. Formation of an 
Essay read before South Carolina Bar Association. By John P. 
Thomas, Jr. 1889. 
Keith, Sir William. The History of the British Plantations in America. 

Part I. Virginia, London. MDCCXXXVIII. 
Lecky's History of the Eighteenth Century. 1878. 
Lecky's Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. 1882. 
Legare, Hon. Hugh Swinton. Writings vfith Memoirs by his Sister. 1846. 
Legal Works 

Blackstone's Commentaries. 

Gushing' s Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies. 

Court Book MSS. 1763, 1775. Office Clerk, G. S. and C. P., 

Charleston, S. C. 
Jacob's Law Dictionary. 
May's Law and Practice of Parliament. 
Revised Statutes of the United States. 

Reports. English Common Law. Dumford and East (Term 
Reports) . 
East Reports. Lord Raymond's Reports. Salkeld. Ventris. 
English Equity. Ambler Reports. 
South Carolina Reports. Law. 2d and 3d McCords and VII 

Richardson. 
United States Supreme Court Reports. 1 Peters and 19 Howard. 
State Trials. Vol. XX. 
Statutes of South Carolina. 
Trotts, C. J. Charges MSS. 
Trotts, C. J. Laws. 
Lives of the Chief Justices of England. John Lord Campbell. 



Vlll AUTHORITIES QUOTED 

Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England. John Lord Campbell. 

Logan, John H. History of Upper South Carolina. 

Mahon, Lord. History of England. London. 7 volumes 1839-1854. 

McMaster's History of the People of the United States. Volume I. 1883. 

Methodists, History of the. W. Myles. Loudon, 1803. 

Mills, Robert. Statistics of South Carolina. 1826. 

Miscellaneous Records. Probate Office, Charleston, S. C. 

New Jersey Archives. Volume IX. 

Newspaper Press of Charleston, S. C. William L. King. 1882. 

Nova Scotia, History of. R. M. Martin. London, 1837. 

Oglethorpe, James, Biographical Memoirs of. T. M. Harris. 1841. 

O'Neal's Bench and Bar of South Carolina. 2 volumes- 1859. 

Orangeburg County, History of. A. S. Salley, Jr. 1898. 

Parliamentary History. T. May. Volumes VI, VII, XIV. 1812. 

Parton, J. Life of Andrew Jackson. 1860. 

Pinckney, Eliza. Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times. Mrs. 

H. H. Ravenel. 1897. 
Pinckney, General Thomas. By Rev. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D.D. 

1895. 
Poyer, J. History of Barbadoes, 1605-1801. London, 1808. 
Public Libraries One Hundred Years Ago. H. E. Scudder, Bureau of 

Education, U. S. 1876. 
Public Records MSS. of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C. 
Purry, Jean Pierre, Memorial of. Privately Printed. Charles C. 

Jones, Jr. 1880. 
Eamsay, David, M.D. History of South Carolina, 1670-1808. 2 volumes. 

1809. 
Ramsay, David, M.D. History of the Revolution of South Carolina. 

2 vohunes. 1785. 
Ramsay, David, M.D., Memoirs of. Martha L. Ramsay. 1811. 
Records MSS. of Mesne Conveyance Office of Charleston, S. C. 
Report of Committee of Dioce.san Convention, Prot. Epis. Church, So. Ca., 

on the Destruction of Churches in 1865. 
Report of Committee on Translation of Liturgy of French Church. 1863. 
Report of Committee on State Paper Currency of South Carolina. 1737. 
Reports of Historical Committee of the Charleston Library Society. 

1835. 
Rivers, Professor William J. Historical Sketch of South Carolina. 1856. 
Rivers, Professor William J. A Chapter on the Colonial History of the 

Carolinas. 1885. 
Russell's Magazine. September, 1859. March, 1860. 
Simpson, Rev. Archibald. MSS. Diary, Charleston Library. 
Slavery, History of. Thomas R. R. Cobb. 1858. 



AUTHORITIES QUOTED ix 

Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 1670-1770. Edward McCrady. 

Annual Report American Historical Society. 1896. 
St. Mark's Parish and William's Township, Chronicles of. 1731, 1885. 

James M. Burgess, M.D. 
St. Philip's Church, Historical Sketch of. By Edward McCrady. Year 

Book. Charleston, 1896. 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Historical Account of. Hum- 
phreys. 1729. 
Society for tlie Propagation of the Gospel, Digest Records of. 1701-1892. 
Southern Historical Society, Publications of. 
South Carolina under the Proprietary Governments, 1670-1719. Edward 

McCrady. 1897. 
Thomas's History of Printing in America. 2 volumes. 1810. 
Toner, Joseph, M.D., Lectures. Bureau of Education, U. S. 1874. 
Wells's Register. Together with Almanack &ct. For the Year of our 

Lord 1775. 
West Indies, The History of. Bryan Edwards. 3 volumes. London, 

1794, 1801. 
Wilkes, John, Life of. J. Almon. London, 1805. 
Winyaw Society, Rules of. 

Whitefield, Rev. George, Memoirs of. By Rev. J. Gillies. 1812. 
Whitefield, Rev. George. Letters to Rev. Alexander Garden. 1740. 
Year Books of the City of Charleston, during the Administrations of the 

Hon. William A. Courtenay, Hon. John F. Fickeu, Hon. J. Adger 

Smyth. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

1/19-1720 

The Revolution of 1719 Instigated by the Royal government — Rhett's 
prediction that It would end in revolt against the King — Anomalous 
condition of original province as defined by grant — South Carolina under 
Royal, North Carolina under Proprietary government — The King and 
Lord John Carteret joint owners of the soil of the whole — Continued 
dangers from the Spaniards and Indians — Temporary government under 
James Moore — Its enactments — Organization of courts — Act against 
usury — Act for relief of debtors — Commodities as currency — Rice 
bills — Enlistment of trusty slaves. 1-15. 

CHAPTER II 

1720-1721 

Joseph Boone and John Barnwell consulted by Board of Trade upon 
draft of commission for Provisional Governor under Royal government — 
Maryland precedent followed — Sir Francis Nicholson selected as Pro- 
visional Governor — His character and experience — Constitutional differ- 
ence between Proprietary and Royal governments — Sir Francis Nicholson, 
Messrs. Boone and Barnwell, consulted upon draft of instructions to Gov- 
ernor — Sketch of instructions and scheme of government thereunder — 
Sir Francis sworn as Governor — A fort on the Altamaha to be established 
— Sir Francis Nicholson arrives in Charlestown. 16-33. 

CHAPTER III 

1720-1722 

Governor Robert Johnson submits to Royal government — The people 
receive Sir Francis Nicholson with joy — Colonel Barnwell commissioned 
commander of Southern forces — Governor Nicholson issues writs of 
election — James Moore Speaker of new House — Act recognizing his 
Majesty King George I — Another for pacification of province — Usury 

xi 



XU CONTENTS 

law reeiiacted — Election law revised — Indian trade regulated — Ofificers 
chosen by Assembly — Tax on land and negroes — Disallowed by Lords 
Justices in England — Instructions of Assembly to agents in London — 
Act to incorporate Charlestown as Charles City and Port — Petition 
against same — Act disallowed by Lords Justices — Courts of Chancery 
provided — County and Precinct Courts established — Slave code revised 
— Duties imposed on importation of negroes — Efforts for their educa- 
tion — Position of church and courts in England in regard to institution 
of slavery. 34-52. 

CHAPTER IV 

1722-1724 

Peace between England and Spain — Governors of South Carolina and 
Florida charged to preserve pacific relations — Mutual complaints — Gov- 
ernor Nicholson inaugurates peaceful relations with Indians — Holds 
Congress — Makes treaty with Cherokees and Creeks — Moore and Rhett 
quarrel — Rhett quarrels also with Nicholson — His death — Tragedy of 
the Dutartre family — Adventures of Othneil Beale — Difficulties of Sir 
Francis Nicholson's provisional government — Controversy over the cur- 
rency — Sir Francis desires to be relieved — His liberality in support of 
religion and education — Gifts and legacies for same — Sir Francis sails 
for England. 53-G8. 

CHAPTER V 

1724-1728 

In absence of Governor Nicholson, administration devolves upon Mr. 
Arthur Middleton as President of Council — His position more difficult 
than that of Governor Nicholson — Proprietors still endeavor to recover 
their government — Robert Johnson's letter to Lord John Carteret — Pro- 
prietors appoint Robert Wright Chief Justice — Memorialize the King to 
accept surrender of charter — At same time pray Royal government that 
Colonel Samuel Horsey be made Governor and Robert Wright Chief 
Justice — Colonel Horsey and Thomas Lowndes instrumental in negotia- 
ting surrender of charter — Colonel Horsey made Landgrave — Character 
of Mr. Middleton — Question of boundary between South Carolina and 
Florida : negotiations thereon — Fort on Altamaha burned — Indian depre- 
dations renewed — Colonel Palmer's invasion of Florida — French en- 
croachments from the West — Purry's proposition for settlement of 
colony from Switzerland — Complaints against Mr. Middleton — Renewal 
of controversy over currency — Popular party led by Landgrave Smitli — 
His arrest: riots ensue — Assembly called — Landgrave Smith memo- 
rializes House upon his arrest — Issue between Assembly and Council 



CONTENTS xui 

thereon — Smith released on bail — Continued controversy — Assembly 
attempts arrest of Chief Justice wiiile sitting in council — Mr. Godin sent 
by Council to England to represent case — Surrender of charter of Pro- 
prietors completed — Hurricane and yellow fever of 1728. (59-90. 

CHAPTER VI 

1729-1730 

Robert Johnson commissioned Governor under permanent Royal gov- 
ernment — Is consulted as to his instructions — Their character and 
government thereunder — Subject to Board of Trade and Plantations — 
No legislation vs^ithout its approval — Character and relation of Council 
to House of Assembly — Their parliamentary proceeding — Governor's 
speech — Patent Offices — Rev. Alexander Garden rector St. Philip's 
Church and commissary of Bishop of London — Early records of St. 
Philip's vestry — Vestry and wardens charged with care of the poor — 
Sir Alexander Cumming, sent to the Cherokees, concludes treaty with 
them — Indian chiefs sent to England with Sir Alexander — Audience 
with King — Treaty entered into with his Majesty. .91-106. 

CHAPTER VII 

1731-1732 

Governor Robert Johnson arrives at Charlestown — Indian chiefs return 
with him — He brings commission of Lieutenant Governor for Thomas 
Broughton — Of Chief Justice for Robert Wright — Members of his Coun- 
cil — Material favors of Royal government — Rice allowed to be shipped 
to ports south of Cape Finisterre — Bounty on hemp, etc. — Appropriation 
law — New bills allowed to be issued — Arrears of quit-rents remitted — 
Independent company organized — Question of boundary between North 
and South Carolina — Settlement of Georgia begun — Area taken from 
South Carolina — Loses also in population by the new settlement — For- 
mation and characteristics of territory — Upper and lower country. 
107-120. 

CHAPTER VIII 

1732-1734 

Vigorous measures for populating and settling the country — Eleven 
townships laid out — Yellow fever of 17.32 — Purry's advertisements for 
settlers — His colony of Swiss arrives — Settles at Purrysburg on the 
Savannah — Settlement ends disastrously — German and Swiss settlers in 
Orangeburg — Irish colony at Williamsburg — Welch and Scotch on the 



XIV CONTENTS 

Pee Dee — Virginians on the High Hills of Santee — New parishes laid 
out — Military divisions of province — Georgetown laid out — Families of 
subsequent distiuction settle in province, — Moultrie, Rutledge, De 
Saussure. 121-142. 

CHAPTER IX 

17.S2-1734 

Increased commercial importance of colony and value of lands — Im- 
provements in buiMings — Printing-press introduced — First printers — 
They die of yellow fever — The South Carolina Gazette established by 
Lewis Timothy — Its successors, ending in present News and Courier — 
Struggle between Commons' House of Assembly and Chief Justice 
Wright over commitments by Commons upon matters subject to judicial 
action — Rights of habeas corpus in such cases. 143-163. 

CHAPTER X 

1733-1737 

Arrival of Oglethorpe with part of his colony — Receives the most 
generous assistance — Colonel Bull assists in choice of site for settlement 

— City of Savannah founded — Death of Governor Robert Johnson — 
Lieutenant Governor Thomas Broughton succeeds to administration of 
government — Struggle between Commons' House of Assembly and Coun- 
cil over right of latter to amend money bills — Death of Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Broughton — Colonel William Bull administers government as 
President of Council. 164-176. 

CHAPTER XI 

1737-1740 

Sketch of William Bull — Difficulty in supplying Governor Johnson's 
place — Colonel Samuel Horsey appointed — Dies without leaving England 

— Colonel Bull appointed Lieutenant Governor — James Glen appointed 
Governor — Oglethorpe Commander-in-Chief of forces in South Carolina 
and Georgia — His military education and experience — Renewed struggle 
between Commons' House and Council over power of latter to amend 
money bills — Council refuses to allow Governor to sit at board while 
Council sits as an Upper House — Three years of disaster — In 1738 small- 
pox appears — In 1730 yellow fever rages and negroes rise in insurrection 

— In 1740 occurs an unsuccessful expedition against St. Augustine and 
a great fire in Charlestown — Renewal of hostilities between England and 
Spain — Oglethorpe returns from England with a regiment — Invades 
Florida; takes and burns fort at Picolata — Applies to Lieutenant Gov- 



CONTENTS XV 

ernor Bull for assistance — Carolinians dissatisfied with his plans hesitate 
to join in invasion — Negotiations thereon — Regiment raised — Alexander 
Vander Uussen Colonel. 177-198. 

CHAPTER XII 

1740 

Oglethorpe's expedition to St. Augustine — Description of peninsula 
of Florida — Rendezvous at Fort St. George on St. John's — Vander Dussen 
and Captain Pearce of Royal navy to be consulted — Route by Picolata 
advised — Long route down peninsula chosen — Oglethorpe advances the 
9th of May with part of his forces — Takes Fort Diego — Returns to St. 
John's — Resumes his advance on the 21st — His erratic and uncertain 
movements — Makes personal reconnoissance to St. Augustine — On the 
27th another reconnoissance in force — Returns to Diego — Reviews Caro- 
lina regiment — Indians desert — General advance begun on the 31st — 
Arrives before St. Augustine on the 2d of June — Colonel Palmer, a volun- 
teer aid, proposes an immediate attack — Oglethorpe refuses — Occupies 
Fort Moosa — Lieutenant Bryan makes dash into the town and urges 
immediate assault — Oglethorpe refuses — Carolina regiment ordered to 
Point Quartell — There resists demonstration by Spanish galleys from 
castle — Captain Pearce arrives off bar of St. Augustine — Council of 
war held — Pearce refuses to remain longer than the 5th of July — 
Colonel Palmer with detachment ordered to Fort Moosa — Protests, but 
obeys — Carolina regiment without supplies — Oglethorpe transfers his 
regiment to Anastatia Island against advice of Colonel Vander Dussen 
and Lieutenant Colonel Cook — Garrison at Fort Moosa attacked and 
destroyed — Colonel Palmer killed — Naval officers impatient and demand 
action — Council held without result — Oglethorpe removes his regiment 
to the main — Carolina regiment transferred to Anastatia Island — Sur- 
render of castle demanded— Refused — Vander Dussen urges assault — 
Council held — Assault declared impracticable — Fleet abandons enter- 
prise — Siege raised — Conduct of expedition considered — Oglethorpe's 
subsequent military career — South Carolina regiment returns — Colonel 
Fenwicke's address to it. 199-229. 

CHAPTER XIII 

1740-1743 

Slave code revised — Duties imposed upon importation of negroes — 
Incendiary fires — Negro burned — Whitefield's controversy with Dr. Gar- 
den — Hugh Bryan's charge against clergy of Clmrch of England — Great 



Xvi CONTENTS 

fire in Charlestown — Hugh Bryan's delusion and inflammatory addresses 
— Is presented by grand jury — Renewed attention to i-eligious instruc- 
tion of negroes — Bisliop of London's pastoral upon subject — Addresses 
of Rev. James Parker and Rev. Josiali Smith on same — Society for 
Propagation of Gospel purchases negroes to educate for teachers — Com- 
missary Garden's school for negroes — Whitefield purchases negroes for 
orphanage at Bethesda — Advocates establishment of slavery in Georgia. 
230-2i9. 

CHAPTER XIV 

1743-1750 

Governor Glen arrives — Assumes administration of government — 
His character — Addresses Assembly — Advances made in constitutional 
government while he delayed in England — His letter to the Duke of New 
Castle upon the character of the government he finds — Letter to the 
Duke of Bedford upon same subject — Suggests changes — Third letter 
upon same — Appointment of Chief Justices — His answer to the Board 
of Trade upon economic condition of province — Statistics of rice, indigo, 
and peltry — History of these commodities — Taxes and disbursements of 
government. 250-274. 

CHAPTER XV 

1751-1755 

St. Michael's Parish established — Church built — Its steeple and bells 
— Hurricane of 1752 — The case of Chief Justice Pinckney ; removal of, 
to make room for Peter Leigh — DeBrahm's system of fortification — Pro- 
vision therefor gives rise to renewed question as to character and relation 
of the two Houses of Assembly. 275-293. 

CHAPTER XVI 

1755-1756 

Description of Upper Carolina — Three remarkable classes of men 
precede regular settlers, — hunters, cow drivers, Indian traders — Anthony 
Park — Daugherty — Packhorsemen — Voy ageurs — Caravans follow In- 
dian trails — Fort Moore and Congarees — Keowee trail — Railroad system 
follows these old trails — Map of De L' Isle — English and French emis- 
saries among Indians — Indian troubles begin again — Chain of French 
settlements from Canada to Mississippi — Governor Glen's letter to Lieu- 
tenant Governor Dinwiddie — War between Creeks and Cherokees — 
Governor Glen invites conference — AttakullakuUa, or Little Carpenter, 
chief spokesman of Cherokees — Pipes smoked — Talk with Cherokees — 



CONTENTS XVli 

Peace restored — Real extent of Governor Glen's purchase of territory 

— Fort Prince George built — Emigrants massacred at Guttery's — Gov- 
ernor Glen invites another Indian congress — Is recalled. 294-310. 

CHAPTER XVII 

1755-1756 

Scotch-Irish Presbyterians settle in Pennsylvania — Upon Braddock's 
defeat come dov?n to Waxhaws in South Carolina — Here still subject to 
danger from Indian incursions — Other causes of anxiety — The estab- 
lishment of the Church of England and the impotence of the government 
to preserve order in the new settlements on the frontier — Distinguished 
men who come from this settlement — Characteristics of these people. 
311-320. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

1756-1760 

William Henry Lyttleton appointed Governor, and arrives in Charles- 
town — His reception — Governor Glen at Ninety-six learns of his arrival 
and returns to Charlestown — Arrival of Acadians — Their unwelcome 
reception — Assembly reconvened provides for them — Votes supplies 
and adjourns — Anomalous condition of affairs between England and 
Prance in this country — Hostilities in northern provinces — British suc- 
cesses — Indian outbreak upon frontier of South Carolina — Attakulla- 
kuUa's efforts to preserve peace — Occonostota and other Indian chiefs 
come to Cliarlestowu under safe conduct to have "talk" with Governor 

— His harsh treatment of them — Lieutenant Governor Bull disapproves 
Governor's course — Governor Lyttleton calls out militia — Marches to 
frontier with Indian chiefs as prisoners — Sends for AttakullakuUa to meet 
him at Fort Prince George — AttakullakuUa obtains release of Occonos- 
tota and other Indian chiefs — Treaty made with Indians — Governor 
returns to Charlestown, receives congratulation — Smallpox breaks out 
at Fort Prince George — Indians rise again — Lieutenant Coytomore mas- 
sacred — Frontier a blaze — Massacre of the Calhouns — Governor Lyttle- 
ton appointed Governor of Jamaica and sails for that place. 321-344. 

CHAPTER XIX 

1760-1765 

Thomas Pownal commissioned Governor; but does not come out — 
Lieutenant Governor William Bull assumes administration — Ship Albany 
arrives with transports bringing Colonel Montgomery with the 77th Regi- 
ment of Foot, or Royal Scots, and his own Regiment of Highlanders, which 



Xviii CONTENTS 

force is received with great joy, and proceeds at once to Monck's Corner 

— Thence Colonel Montgomery marches to the Congarees, when joined 
by the militia proceeds to the Cherokee country and intlicts summary 
vengeance — By orders compelled to return to Charlestown — Retreat 
causes abandonment of Fort Loudon — Garrison taken, some massacred, 
rest carried into captivity — Romantic incident of Captain Stuart's pres- 
ervation by AttakuUakulla and his escape — Lieutenant Colonel Bull 
appeals to General Amherst for assistance, who sends Lieutenant Colo- 
nel Grant with Highland Regiment and two companies of Light Infantry 

— Lieutenant Colonel Bull raises a Carolina regiment under Colonel 
Thomas Middleton — Officers of regiment, many of whom afterward 
distinguished in the Revolution — Colonel Grant advances into the inte- 
rior, attacks, defeats, and pursues the Indians — AttakuUakulla sues for 
peace — Is sent to Lieutenant Governor Bull, who receives him, smokes 
pipe of peace, and makes treaty — Duel between Colonel Grant and 
Colonel Middleton — Thomas Boone appointed Governor — Arrives in 
colony — Enters upon administration under most auspicious circum- 
stances, but soon becomes involved in controversy with Commons over 
Election Law and Christopher Gadsden's election — Controversy ends 
in complete rupture with House — Peace restored by Treaty of Paris — 
Large additions to population — Palatines under Stumpel — Huguenots 
under Gibert — Governor Boone leaves province — Lieutenant Governor 
Bull resumes administration, and harmony is restored — Board of Trade 
in England blames both parties to controversy — Men subsequently promi- 
nent in Revolution begin to appear — Sketch of Christopher Gadsen. 
345-375. 

CHAPTER XX 

1765-1775 

Prosperous condition of province — Increase of population — Board of 
Trade and Plantations prohibit duties on negroes imported — Their dis- 
proportionate increase — Decisions of English courts in regard to slavery 

— Celebrated "Somerset" or "Negro Case" — Chief Justice Holt's 
famous saying in regard to slavery discussed — Crude system of cultiva- 
tion of rice, and of rice mills — Exports of rice and indigo — Value of 
trade of South Carolina to England — DeBrahm's report — Josiah Quincy's 
journal — Description of Charlestown. 376-308. 

CHAPTER XXI 

1765-1775 
Merchandise and trade foundation of first fortunes in South Carolina 

— Few Landgraves or Caciques retained their baronies — Lands change 



CONTENTS xix 

owners, and purchased by money earned in trade — Later merchants 
mostly Scotchmen — Sketclies of several early merchants — Merchants 
generally opposed to revolution — Their attitude considered. 399-412. 

CHAPTER XXII 

1765-1775 

Physicians first professional men in colony — Physicians under Pro- 
prietary government — Physicians under Royal government — Carolina 
leads all the colonies in the study of natural sciences — George Smith, son 
of first Landgrave Smith, graduated in medicine in 1700 — "William Bull 
probably first native American to obtain a degree in medicine — John 
Moultrie next South Carolinian to do so — Study of medicine first begun 
in Charlestown in 1760 — Dr. Ramsay the first physician educated in 
America to practise in South Carolina — Sketch of him — The three dis- 
eases by which province principally afiflicted, — smallpox, yellow fever, 
and country fever — Some accounts of these diseases and their treatment 

— Inoculation tried — Violent discussion thereon — Faculty of Physic 
organized in 1755. 413-433. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

1765-1775 

Clergy in the province — Jurisdiction of the Bishop of London over 
Church and clei'gy confirmed — Rev. William Tredwell Bull commissary 

— His account of condition of Church of England in province, 1723 — Mr. 
Woodmason's account, 1766 — Rev. Alexander Garden commissary — His 
visitations — Wesley in Charlestown — Attends visitation — Rev. Richard 
Clarke — Presbyterian Church established by Rev. Archibald Stobo — In- 
dependent or Congregationalist Church and its clergy — Separation of 
Presbyterians from Congregationalists — First Presbyterian Church in 
Charlestown, 1731 — Its clergy — Other Presbyterian and Congregation- 
alist churches — Rev. Joseph Bugnion and Rev. Henry Chiffelle accept 
Episcopal ordination — Rev. John Martin Bolzius holds Lutheran service 
in Charlestown, 1734 — Rev. John George Friederichs organizes first 
Lutheran congregation in 1759 — Rev. John Ulrich Giessendanner pastor 
of Swiss and Germans in Orangeburg, 1737 — Rev. John Giessendanner 
accepts Episcopal ordination — Rev. Jean Louis Gibert brings out colony 
of French Protestants, 1764 — Estimated ratio of various denominations — 
Many of clergy of Church of England come out as tutors and teachers — 
Their general good character — Tiiey support the Revolution — So do the 
Presbyterian clergy — The Rev. Mr. Hutson's conversion — Interesting 



XX CONTENTS 

meeting of Rev. William Richardson and Rev. Archibald Simpson — 
Other Presbyterian and Baptist clergymen — Leaders of Revolution 
mostly from Church of England. 484-458. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

1765-1775 

Bench and Bar in province — Absence of lawyers until 1698 — Names 
of those who appear under Proprietary government — Rise of influence 
of the Bar under Royal government — Organization of courts — Lay 
Judges — Dual sets of officers under Proprietary and Royal provisional 
governments — Robert Wright appointed Chief Justice by Proprietors — 
Accepted by Royal government — He succeeded by Benjamin Whitaker 

— He by James Grseme — Episode of Charles Pinckney's appointment, 
and his supersedure by Peter Leigh — He succeeded by James Michie — 
Infamous character of Chief Justice Shinner — William Wragg, layman, 
appointed Chief Justice — Refuses commission — His high conduct — 
Thomas Knox Gordon last Chief Justice under Royal government — 
William Henry Drayton's letter upon subject of lay Judges — Judges in 
Admiralty — Controversy between Sir Egerton Leigh and Henry Laurens 

— Curious entry in journal of the Court of Chancery, December 17, 
1722 — Names of practising attorneys at that time, — Andrew Rutledge, 
Charles Pinckney, Peter Manigault — Number of South Carolinians ad- 
mitted to Inns of Court in London — Expenses attending same — Effect 
of the return of these young men imbued with Whig doctrines learned 
there — Position of Bar in regard to Revolution — List of attorneys, 1775. 
459-481. 

CHAPTER XXV 

1765-1775 

Attention to education under Proprietary government — Sir Francis 
Nicholson's liberality and encouragement of learning — Act of 1722 — 
Liberal bequests in support of education — Aid given by social societies, 
others formed for the support of education — Advertisements in the Ga- 
zettes of schools, of masters, and of tutors — Lectures upon scientific 
subjects — Experiments in electricity — Educational system necessai'ily 
different from that of the common schools of New England — Young men 
sent to England for their education — Proficiency in classics — Disad- 
vantages of European education — Lieutenant Governor Bull's scheme for 
a university in South Carolina — Northern institutions obtain large pecu- 
niary aid from this province — Presbyterian clergymen as teachers in 
upper country — The Mount Zion Society — St. David's Society — Catholic 
Society — Newspapers — Libraries. 482-512. 



CONTENTS xxi 

CHAPTER XXVI 

1765-1775 

Prosperity and happiness of province under Royal governmenL — 
Fondness of Carolinians for British manners — A Carolinian household, — 
butler, coachman, patroon — A plantation a community in itself — Field 
sports — Introduction of horses — Carolina saddle horses — Deer hunt- 
ing — Horse-racing — Malaria forces collection of planters in summer — 
Amusements — Concerts — Theatrical performances — First theatre — 
American comedians — Their performances — Social societies and clubs 
— Fire insurance — Court set — Convivial parties — Diaries — Intercourse 
with London — Royal appointments closed to natives — Development of 
society in Charlestowu. 513-540. 

CHAPTER XXVII 
1765 

Controversy over Stamp act begiin — Its character considered — Navi- 
gation lavFs the real cause of trouble — Their operation in the Northern 
colonies — Southern colonies not so much affected by them — Different 
opinions in England and in America as to Stamp act — A great constitu- 
tional question. 541-559. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

1765 

First American Congress — South Carolina Assembly resolves to send 
delegates — Commons question authenticity of copy of Stamp act — Reso- 
lutions adopted — Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, and John Rut- 
ledge deputies to Congress — Proceedings of people of Charlestown on 
arrival of stamps — Henry Laurens's position in regard to act — His ill- 
treatment by mob — Stamp officers compelled to declare their refusal to 
act — Chief Justice Shinner adjourns court for want of stamps — Assistant 
Judges open court and proceed with business — Clerk refuses to issue pro- 
cess without stamps — Commons request his removal, which Lieutenant 
Governor Bull refuses to make — Deputies to Congress return — Their 
conduct at the Congress — Gadsden's position — Resolutions adopted by 
Commons — Fall of Grenville's ministry — Debate in Parliament on Stamp 
act — Barre's alleged speech — Division of opinion upon subject — Repeal 
of Stamp act — Passage of Declaratory act. 560-585. 



Xxii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXIX 

1766-1767 

News of repeal of Stamp act received in Charlestown — Statue of Pitt 
ordered by Commons — Wragg moves to substitute name George III — 
King's birthday celebrated — Lord Charles Greville Montagu, Governor, 
arrives — Rejoicing thereon — William Johnson and the Liberty Tree — 
Gadsden addresses meeting of mechanics against Declaratory act — Meet- 
ing pledges resistance thereto — People generally satisfied — Question of 
quartering of troops — Action of Boston and New York in regard thereto 
— Regulators begin to give trouble in upper country — The Governor's 
unfortunate action in regard thereto. 586-595. 

CHAPTER XXX 

1768 

Circular letter with resolutions from Massachusetts in regard to taxa- 
tion without representation — Its reception in Virginia — Letter of Peyton 
Randolph, Speaker of House of Burgesses of Virginia — Character of 
these letters — Instructions by Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of the 
colonies, thereon, requiring Massachusetts to rescind resolutions — Seizure 
of Hancock's sloop Libertij, and riot induced thereby — Massachusetts 
refuses to rescind — South Carolina supports Massachusetts — Mr. Mani- 
gault, Speaker of Commons of South Carolina, replies to Speaker Gushing, 
of Massachusetts, and to Speaker Randolph, of Virginia — Correspondence 
with Mr. Garth, agent, upon same — Mechanics nominate candidates for 
Commons, but are defeated — Popular demonstrations in support of Anti- 
Rescinders of Massachusetts and of Wilkes — Assembly prorogued to 
await return of Governor from the North — Assembly meets — Chooses 
Peter Manigault Speaker — The Governor's speech in reference to Massa- 
chusetts — Commons reply to same — Adopted by twenty-six members — 
Governor prorogues Assembly — Speaker Manigault sends copies of pro- 
ceedings to Massachusetts and Virginia. 590-612. 

CHAPTER XXXI 

1769 

New election held — The twenty -six reelected — Mechanics have an 
entertainment — Masons also — Toasts of the day — Assembly prorogued 
— When allowed to sit reelect Peter Manigault Speaker — Governor's 



CONTENTS XXlll 

speech — Answer of Commons — Quartering of troops — Opposition of 
Commons thereto — Governor sails for England — Administration de- 
volves for third time on Lieutenant Governor Bull — Commons refuse to 
quarter troops — Bedford's threat that principal agitators be sent to Eng- 
land for trial — Commons adopt a Bill of Rights — Assembly prorogued — 
Troops embarked — William Wragg appointed to Council. 613-622. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

1767-1770 

Effect of the immigration of the Scotch-Irish — Their social order — 
Disbandment of European armies in America upon Peace of Paris intro- 
duces a disturbing element which gives rise to Regulators — Efforts of 
Assembly to provide courts for up country frustrated by Cumberland, 
Provost Marshal of province and Clerk of Board of Trade in England — 
History of office of Provost Marshal, and negotiations of colony for pur- 
chase of its patent — Colony agrees to pay Cumberland £5000 — Refuses 
to pay other patentees — The tenure of judges another difficulty in way 
of establishment of courts — Kirkland's memorial to Assembly — He 
heads party which rescues prisoner from Provost Marshal's deputy — Ex- 
citement thereon — Alarm in the parishes — Memorial of inhabitants on 
Congaree — Governor commissions Scofield to put down disturbance — 
Trouble ensues — Quieted by Richardson, Thompson, and McGirt — Me- 
morial of Bell, Calhoun, and others for establishment of parishes in up 
country — Joseph Kershaw's report thereon — Circuit act finally allowed 
in England — Cumberland paid, and office of Provost Marshal abolished. 
623-643. 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

1769-1770 

Non-importation scheme adopted in New York and Massachusetts — 
Meetings of mechanics and merchants propose forms of agTeement of 
non-importation to be adopted in Charlestown — Opposition thereto — 
Discussion in the Gazettes thereon — General meeting of the people 
under the Liberty Tree — Forms of agreement adopted — General com- 
mittee of planters, merchants, and mechanics formed — John Neufville 
general chairman — Protest by William Henry Drayton and William 
Wragg — Sketch of William Henry Drayton — His controversy with 
Christopher Gadsden — Lists of non-subscribers published — Mr. Wragg's 
and Mr. Drayton's protests — Inquisitorial course of committee begun — 
McDonnell's case. 644-658. 



XXIV CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

1769-1770 

Patrick Calhoun and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney appear in Assem- 
bly — Drayton memorializes Assembly against non-importation proceed- 
ings — Petition rejected — House passes an order for £10,500 currency to 
be remitted to Great Britain for assisting in support of constitutional 
rights — Mr. Drayton over signature of " Freeman " in the Gazelle assails 
the order — Money really intended for John Wilkes and sent for his 
benefit — Lieutenant Governor Bull's report thereon to Lord Hillsbor- 
ough — Mr. Drayton sails for England — Contemptuous announcement 
of his departure — Another meeting held under Liberty Tree — Mr. 
Alexander Gillon's case — Mr. Gillon is required to store his wine — 
Subscribers prohibited from dealing with masters of vessels and transient 
persons — Committee instructed to advertise non-subscribers — Wilkes's 
release from imprisonment celebrated — Another meeting under the Lib- 
erty Tree — Several cases of violation of agreement presented, considered, 
and passed upon — Anathemas of contempt and abhorrence pronounced 
against non-subscribers and violators — Threats of tar and feathers — Case 
of the Sally George — £300,000 sterling estimated lost to Great Britain 
by non-importation of slaves under agreement — Cases of Ann and Ben- 
jamin Mathews and of William Glen and Son — Mrs. Mathews gets a hear- 
ing in Well's Gazette — Another meeting under the Liberty Tree called 
to consider the conduct of Rhode Island and Georgia — Commercial 
intercourse with those colonies prohibited — Meeting resolved to resist 
Lord North's proposed bill to remove all duties but those on tea — Com- 
mittee's action denouncing Mrs. Mathews sustained. 659-676. 

CHAPTER XXXV 

1770-1773 

Arrival and dedication of statue of Pitt — Celebration thereon — Rule 
of the non-importers nears its end — Another meeting held under the 
Liberty Tree — Benjamin Mathews succumbs and sues for pardon — 
News of the abandonment of the agreement by other colonies — A last 
meeting under the Liberty Tree — Motion to break through prevails — 
Resolutions adopted — Committee appointed to protest against conduct 
of other colonies — Lieutenant Governor Bull's report to Lord Hills- 
borough — Controversy between Council and Commons over the remit- 
tance to England for Wilkes — Lieutenant Governor Bull prorogues the 
Assembly from time to time — "Additional Instruction" in regard to 
appropriation of money — Resolution of Commons thereon — No tax bill 
passed after August, 1770. 677-692. 



CONTENTS XXV 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

1770-1773 

Lord Charles Greville Montagu returns and resumes government — Is 
welcomed, but returns in ill humor — Dissatisfied with lodgings in Charles- 
town, takes up residence on James's Island — Castle proposed to be built 
there — Commons passes order on liublic Treasurers, which Ti-easurers re- 
fuse and are arrested — Governor dissolves Assembly — Another elected, 
composed of same representatives — Again dissolved — Governor calls 
another to be held at Beaufort, against advice of Lieutenant Governor 
Bull — Full House promptly appears at Beaufort — Governor delays to 
approve Speaker or to open Assembly — His speech in doing so — Pro- 
rogues Assembly to meet at Charlestown — Assembly meets there — 
Speaker Manigault retires — Rawlins Lowndes elected — Approved by 
Governor — Governor's foolish quarrel with Speaker Lowndes over cus- 
tody of journal — Assembly again dissolved — Another election held, 
same members reelected — Lord Charles Greville Montagu's administra- 
tion ends — He sails for England. 693-707. 

CHAPTER XXXVII 

1773-1774 

Hon. William Bull's fifth administration — His position and character 
— His conciliatory address to Assembly — William Henry Drayton 
returns with appointment as one of the King's Council, with which body 
he is soon in open rupture — His account of same — Denounces the stran- 
gers and placemen from England thereon — Olficiousness of this body — 
Advice to Lieutenant Governor Bull on finance — His Honor's curt reply 
thereto — Council takes offence thereat — Drayton espouses cause of 
Council — Commons pass bill to punish counterfeiting — Council refuses 
to pass any bill until Commons send tax bill — Commons refuses to do 
so while "Additional Instruction" stands — Drayton urges Council to 
pass counterfeiting bill — Protests against its refusal to do so — Gives 
copy of protest to Powell, printer of Gazette, who publishes same — 
Council commits Powell for contempt — Edward Rutledge makes his first 
appearance as counsel for Powell — Sues out habeas corpus before Raw- 
lins Lowndes and George Gabriel Powell, Justices of the Peace — His 
speech in case — Powell, the printer, is released — Opinion by Lowndes 
in doing so — Controversies following. 708-723. 



XXvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 

1773-1774 

Duties on all articles but tea repealed — Duties on tea retained as 
assertion of right — Otlier causes of discontent still at work — Drawback 
on tea allowed in favor of East India Company — The company sends tea 
to America — Action of Boston thereon — Ship London arrives in Charles- 
town with tea— General meeting of inhabitants of Charlestown called, 
who refuse to allow tea to be landed — At another meeting question 
reconsidered, but with same result — Lieutenant Governor Bull power- 
less, but collector secretly stores the tea — Another meeting held, but 
discussion postponed, more important matter on hand — Financial scheme 
of Commons — Issue of £200,000 certificates of indebtedness established 
with aid of Chamber of Commerce as currency without sanction of Gov- 
ernor or Council — The Boston Port Bill introduced in Parliament — 
Carolinians in London petition against it — Boston appeals to other colo- 
nies to stop all importation — Meeting in Charlestown thereon — Its com- 
position and character — George Gabriel Powell, President — Discussion 
as to proper action — Resolve to send deputies to Continental Congress — 
Instructions to delegates — Election of delegates — Two parties, Henry 
Middleton and John Rutledge, accepted by all — Christopher Gadsden, 
Thomas Lynch, and Edward Rutledge elected other delegates — General 
Committee appointed — Money and supplies sent to Boston. 724-744. 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

1774-1775 

Commons' House meets at unusual hour in the morning, and provides 
for paying delegates to Congress before Lieutenant Governor Bull could 
prorogue them — No one from up country in this Assembly — William 
Henry Drayton volunteers to supply place on circuit of a deceased judge 

— His offer accepted — Publishes over signature of "Freeman" a review 
of the Bench of Assistant Judges which gives great offence, and is 
resented by Chief Justice Knox and another — His removal from the 
Bench asked for — Pending discussion thereon Drayton goes on circuit 
and makes his famous charges to the grand juries — Their action thereon 

— He is superseded — The Rev. Mr. Bullman preaches against the Revo- 
lutionists — A controversy follows his sermon — Church commissioners 
appealed to — Curious mistake in regard to .same — Mr. Bullman leaves 
the country — Chests of tea thrown into the river — Delegates to Conti- 
nental Congi'ess return and are entertained. 745-756. 



CONTENTS XXVn 

CHAPTER XL 

1774-1775 

General Committee determines to call a more representative body — 
For this purpose divides tlie up country into election districts and appor- 
tions representation — Thus accidentally system of unequal representa- 
tion implanted in constitution — Representatives called to meet in 
Charlestown on the 11th of January, 1775 — Elections held for represen- 
tatives to Provincial Congress called by committee — Members elected — 
Absence of ycotch-lrish element — Provincial Congress meets — Delegates 
to Continental Congress report — Explain statement of grievances adopted 
by that body ; also adoption of non-importation association ; also the 
exception of rice from articles not to be exported — Exception of rice 
gives rise to a heated discussion, but is sustained — Scheme of compensa- 
tion adopted — Provincial Congress establishes a system of government 
by committees — General Committee appointed — Delegates to next Con- 
tinental Congress elected and instructions prescribed — Congress waits 
on and addresses Lieutenant Governor Bull — He refuses to receive 
them as a body, but as a number of respectable gentlemen — A day 
of fasting, humiliation, and prayer appointed — Provincial Congress 
adjourns. 757-773. 

CHAPTER XLI 

1775 

General Committee meets and organizes — Elects Charles Pinckney 
President — Carries out provisions of non-importation association — Case 
of carriage and horses of a family returning — Discussion thereon — 
Commotion in the town — Committee overawed, and finally refuse to 
allow landing of horses — Its action criticised — General Assemblj' meets 
— • Lieutenant Governor's speech — Commons' reply expressed disappoint- 
ment that "Additional Instruction" not revoked — Sanctions appoint- 
ment of delegates to Continental Congress and frames their instructions 
— Passes bill against counterfeiting and sends it to Council — Dilemma 
of Council thereat — William Henry Drayton protests against Council's 
postponement of bill — Publishes his protest — Council passes bill — The 
first bill passed in four years, and last under the Royal government — 
Chief Justice inveighs against Mr. Drayton — Mr. Drayton replies — Day 
of fasting, humilintion, and ]irayer observed — People still loyal to the 
Cruvvn — Action of Parliament — Massachusetts declared in rebellion — 



XXVlll CONTENTS 

Trade with Massacliusetts, reimsylvania, New elersey, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, and South Carolina prohibited — Lord North's conciliatory meas- 
ures now too late — Arms and ammunition seized in Charlestowu — 
Lieutenant Governor Bull sends message to Commons on subject — 
Commons deny any certain knowledge in regard to it — Languor in 
province — Debate in Commons on resolution pledging Assembly to 
raise quota of funds if required by Continental Congress — Resolution 
passed — Delegates to Continental Congress sail for Philadelphia — News 
of the battle of Lexington received — Oath proposed in General Com- 
mittee — Refused — General Committee unwilling to commit any act of 
hostility — Commons issue certificates for payment of debts of 1774 and 
are prorogued — Provincial Congress meets — Charles Pinckney resigns 
presidency — Henry Laurens chosen in his place — Association formed — 
Two regiments of 1500 men to be raised — Council of Safety appointed — 
Their powers — New subscribers to Association made amenable to Gen- 
eral Committee — All absentees required to return — Congress prepares 
an address to Lieutenant Governor Bull ; but Lord William Campbell 
arrives, and Bull declines to receive address of Congress — Public career 
of Lieutenant Governor Bull ends — His high character and popularity — 
Royal government in South Carolina at an end. 774-798. 



HISTOEY OF SOUTH CAEOLINA UNDER 
THE EOYAL GOVEENMENT 



CHAPTER I 

1719-20 

The overthrow of the Proprietary government in South 
Carolina has usually been spoken of as the Revolution of 
1719. Francis Yonge, whose narrative of what took place 
is the accepted authority upon the subject, entitles his 
account "The Proceedings of the People"; ^ and doubtless 
it was by the uprising of the long-exasperated colonists 
that the overthrow was actually consummated. But it was 
the collector of the King's customs, Edward Randolph, 
who began the agitation, and this he did twenty-five 
years before,^ from which time opposition to the Proprie- 
tors was steadily encouraged by the Board of Trade and 
Plantations in England, who listened to every complaint 
and facilitated every movement against their Lordships. 
From the accession of King James II it was, indeed, the 
settled policy to convert all Proprietary into Royal gov- 
ernments. Nor can there be any doubt that Crown and 
people had abundant reason to complain. From the first 
settlement of the province there had been one continuous 
struggle between the Proprietors and the colonists. 

1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 141. 

^ So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 293. 

VOL. II — B 1 



2 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Hewatt, the historian, thus sums up the case against 
their Lordships. When the Proprietors, he says, first 
applied to the King for a grant of this hirge territory, at 
that time occupied by heathen, it was said they were ex- 
cited thereto by their zeal for the Christian faith, yet they 
made no effort to Christianize the Indians. The Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel had taken that work 
up ; but the Proprietors had done nothing to help them. 
By their charter they were to build churches and chapels 
for divine worship ; yet they had left the burden of this 
entirely upon the inhabitants who had received no assist- 
ance or encouragement, except from that society. They 
were to have erected castles and forts for the protection 
of the colony , but the colonists were obliged to raise these 
at their own expense. They assumed to themselves a 
despotic authority to repeal and abrogate laws made by 
the Assembly, and ratified by their own deputies in Caro- 
lina. They not only tyrannized over the colony, but also 
employed and protected officers more tyrannical than them- 
selves. In times of imminent danger, when the colony 
applied to them for assistance, they were either unable or 
unwilling to bear the expense of its protection. When 
the Assembly, to strengthen the frontiers of the province 
and for the encouragement of settlers, allotted lands 
which the colonists themselves had obtained by conquest, 
the Proprietors, claiming the sole right to their disposi- 
tion, repudiated the action of the Assembly, though as- 
sented to by their own deputies, and appropriated the 
lands thus acquired to their own use. When the trade of 
the province was Ijroken up and plundered b}' pirates, the 
colonists could obtain no assistance from their Lordships, 
nor would they allow the laws made by the colonists for 
defraying the expenses of the defences which the colonists 
had themselves provided. At the instance of the mer- 



UNDEH THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 3 

chants of London, the Proprietors interfered with the 
currency of the colony issued to meet its public expendi- 
tures. In short, the people saw no end of their troubles 
and dangers. No remedy appeared to them so proper 
and effectual as that of throwing themselves under the 
immediate care and protection of the Crown of Great 
Britain. 

The government of England now sanctioned, if it had 
not abetted, the conduct of the colonists to the Proprietors. 
In little more than fifty years it was to have the principles 
now approved, applied to its own case, and as successfully 
asserted against its authority, as with its assistance they 
were now asserted against that of the Proprietors. Nor 
was the Royal government even at this time without warn- 
ing to that effect. In 1719 Colonel Rhett in prophetic 
language had written that if this " revolt is not cropt m the 
hud^ they tvill set up for themselves against his Majesty S' '^ 

The revolution left the territory of the province of 
Carolina, as originally formed, in an anomalous condition. 
The settlement of the vast domain granted to the Proprie- 
tors by the charter of Charles II in 1665 had been ulti- 
mately carried on with some success from two points, to 
wit, Albemarle and Charles Town — the attempts at Cape 
Fear and Edisto having failed. While there had been no 
formal division of the domain into distinct territories, these 
settlements at the two points had at tirst distinct govern- 
ments ; and the northern portion had gradually acquired 
the informal designation of North Carolina ; the southern 
that of South Carolina. In 1691 the policy had been 
attempted of consolidating the two settlements or colonies 
under one government for the whole province with Colonel 
Philip Ludwell as Governor, but it had not succeeded ; 

1 Chalmers's Hist, of the Revolt, etc., vol. II, 93 ; Hist. Sketches of So. 
C'a. (Rivers), 299 note. 



4 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and John Archdale, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and Edward 
Tynte, the three succeeding Governors appointed directly 
by the Proprietors, had each been commissioned as Gov- 
ernor of Carolina to administer the affairs of South Caro- 
lina personally, and those of North Carolina by a deputy 
Governor. Charles Eden, the first full Governor of North 
Carolina, was commissioned as such by the Proprietors on 
the 18th of July, 1713. 

Governor Eden was still Governor of North Carolina 
when the revolution in South Carolina took place, and 
having no notion to run the risk of being superseded by 
some one else under the Crown, he procured from his coun- 
cil an address assuring the Lords Proprietors of their utter 
detestation of the proceedings in South Carolina ; that 
nothing should be wanting in their power to protect their 
Lordships' interest in North Carolina ; that the people 
there were entirely easy and satisfied under their govern- 
ment, and would use their utmost endeavor to maintain it. 
Adopting this policy the Governor and Council refused 
to hold any communication with the people's Governor set 
up in South Carolina, and declined to answer a letter 
addressed to Governor Eden by Colonel Moore styling 
himself Governor. ^ 

A part of the original province thus disowned the Pro- 
prietor's government, while the other part maintained it. 
This practically divided the province into two : South 
Carolina becoming a Royal, while North Carolina re- 
mained a Proprietary province. But though the Pro- 
prietary government had been overthrown in South 
Carolina, the title to the soil still remained under the 
grant of the charter of Charles II in the Proprietors and 
so continued until the purchase by the King and the sur- 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 375-382; Hawk's Hist, of No. 
Ca., vol. II, 561. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 6 

render by seven of the eight Proprietors under the act 
of Parliament of 1729. Lord John Carteret, refusing to 
join in the surrender, retained his interest in the land 
until 174-4. His Majesty the King and his Lordship thus 
became joint owners as tenants in common ; the title of 
seven undivided eighths of the province of South Caro- 
lina being in the King, and the remaining undivided 
eighth in Lord John Carteret.^ 

The ten years which followed the overthrow of the 
Proprietors' government, and which ended in the sur- 
render of the charter, was a period of doubt and uncer- 
tainty. It was nearly a year before the colonists learned 
of the acceptance by the Royal government of the revo- 
lution they had accomplished ; and though a government 
was then set up and established by the King, it was but 
provisional, and its permanency was a matter of question, 
as the Proprietors' influence around the throne was still 
very great and was persistently exercised. In the mean- 
while the colonists were in constant apprehension of 
invasion by the Spaniards and pirates, and of murder- 
ous inroads by the Indians ; added to which there was 
a plot of the negroes to destroy the whites and take the 
town, which however was fortunately suppressed.^ 

Upon Governor Robert Johnson's refusal to recognize 
the revolution as accomplished, and to declare that he 
held the government for the King, the Assembly, in 
accordance with the precedents of Parliament during 
the revolution in England of the last century, styling 
itself a convention, had inaugurated a temporary govern- 
ment to hold until the pleasure of his Majesty King 
George the First could be known. James Moore had 
been chosen Governor with a council of twelve, after the 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 679, 680. 

2 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 252, 253. 



6 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

manner of the Royal governments in other colonies. 
Richard Allein had been appointed Chief Justice, and 
Colonel John Barnwell sent as agent to England to 
represent to his Majesty's government what had taken 
place, and to appeal to it to take the colony under the 
Royal protection and immediate government. Having 
thus established a temporary government, the convention 
resolved itself back again into an assembly, and proceeded 
to enact several measures deemed necessary for the condi- 
tion of affairs while waiting for the action of the Royal 
government in England.^ These proceedings were of 
course revolutionary. The Assembly had no direct au- 
thority of the people, for its members had not been elected 
with any avowed purpose of overthrowing the Proprietary 
government. Their justification was in the subsequent 
approval of his Majesty the King, in whose name they had 
set up the new government, and in the acceptance of its 
results by the people. 

While the struggle was going on for the overthrow of 
the Proprietary government. Governor Johnson had 
directed the secretary of the council to secure and hold 
the public records. This it seems he had so effectually 
done that the new government could not obtain access to 
them, for we find an act of the 12th of February, 1719-20, 
imposing a penalty of XIOOO upon any one having their 
custody or keeping, or who knew where they were and did 
not deliver them to William Blake way. Esquire, the 
secretary, or disclose their hiding-place.^ These threats 
and awards appear to have caused the production of the 
lost records, for with the exception of the journals of the 
General Assembly during those commotions, the records 
of the Proprietary government are all now in the office 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 656. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 98. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 7 

of tlie Secretary of State in Columbia or in the Probate 
or Register's office in Charleston. 

The recent experience under Chief Justice Trott, as 
might be supposed, called for some immediate legislative 
action in regard to the courts, so that it might not be 
longer the privilege of a Chief Justice to speak of them as 
his courts. The original of the act adopted unfortunately 
has not been found, nor has any copy been preserved. We 
have only the title, which is "^w act for the better Regu- 
lating Courts of Justice,'" passed February 12, 1719-20. ^ 
Governor Glen writing to the Lords Commissioners of 
Trade in 1749, complaining of one of the assistant judges 
of that time, states that this act was affected to be called 
the Magna Carta of Carolina. He says that it was passed 
by this Assembly, but never confirmed either by the Pro- 
prietors or by the Crown ; he requests to know in what 
light he is to regard this law, a copy of which he trans- 
mits to their Lordships. ^ It is most interesting to 
observe that this act which was so much prized by the 
people, and upon which the judicial system of South 
Carolina remained during the whole of the Royal gov- 
ernment, was constitutionally approved by neither Pro- 
prietary nor Royal authority, and that its legality was a 
matter of serious question. It is singular also that the 
text of so important a measure is not to be found among 
the acts of the time, nor has any copy of it been preserved. 
By Governor Glen's letter it appears that the assistant 
judge in question claimed that no instruction from the 
Crown could give a Governor power to suspend him as 
against this law ; the assistant judge of whom his Excel- 
lency was complaining resigned, however, and the subject 

^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 99. "Passed February 12, 1719-20. 
The original not to be found." 

2 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 308, 309. 



8 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was dropped. It is no less singular that the matter 
appears to have been allowed to rest in this condition 
until the overtlu-ow of the Royal authority. We find sev- 
eral acts during that government, regulating the sitting, 
jurisdiction, and practice of tlie courts, but none relating 
to the constitution of the courts of common law and 
general sessions ; county and precinct courts and a court 
of chancery were provided, but the constitution of the 
common law and general sessions courts appear to have 
remained as they were established under this act of such 
doubtful authority. Having no copy of it we can only 
assume its provision from the constitution of these courts 
as they actually existed. It was under it then that we 
may suppose that these courts were constituted of a Chief 
Justice and four assistant justices. The Chief Justice 
was usually a professional lawyer, and Avas appointed by 
the Crown. The four assistant judges were laymen. 

The first act in Carolina against usury was passed at 
this time. Dr. Ramsay says that there is no evidence of 
any law giving the rate of interest nor of any against 
usury during the first fifty years of the settlement of the 
colony. He states that two laws were passed, one in 1720 
and the other in 1721, against usury, the last of which 
indirectly brought into view the rate of interest. Dr. 
Ramsay evidently did not have before him the act of the 
13th of February, 1719-20, else he would have seen that 
that of the 15th of September, 1721, was but a copy of it, 
reenacted no doubt by the Royal government because of 
the doubt as to the effect of an act of this revolutionary 
bod3^ These acts both prohibit the taking of more 
interest for money lent than ten per cent per annum under 
a penalty of a forfeiture of trel)le the amount. AVhen 
Carolina was settled, says Dr. Ramsay, interest in Eng- 
land was six per cent. When this law was passed it was 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 9 

five. How it came to be ten per cent in Carolina without 
an express law does not appear. Perhaps common con- 
sent and usage, he says, had fixed that rate, for no evi- 
dence exists that there was any written law authorizing it. 
The reason for proscribing usury, it is stated in the act 
of 1721, was that " divers persons have of late taken 
advantage of the great necessities of the peojjle and 
exacted twenty-five pounds for the loan of one hundred 
pounds for one year.''^ 

The Assembly was as parental as it was revolutionary ; 
not content with passing a usury law, it undertook to 
meddle with contracts, and in behalf of the debtor, at the 
expense of the creditor, to relieve against the conse- 
quences of folly and avaricious speculation. It passed 
a measure which formed an evil precedent, to be again 
followed at the close of tlie greater Revolution of 1776. 
The title of the act disclosed its character as class legisla- 
tion. It was '■'-An act for the encouragement of Planting 
and Relief of Debtors.''' ^ The occasion of its enactment as 
given in its preamble was to relieve debtors because of the 
sudden fall of agricultural commodities, as rice from X4 
the hundred to lOs., and in the price of negroes. It recited 
that some had entered " into bonds for currant money at 
and after the rate of two hundred and fifty pounds currant 
money for new negroes, and others for upwards of that 
sum ; whereas indeed new negroes are worth, at the highest 
price, not above thirty pounds, or thirty-five pounds procla- 
mation money ; " others it said had bought goods at .£1000 
and X1200 per cent on the prime cost in England and con- 
tracted for current moneys ; others had taken up money at 
interest to pay their taxes at twenty -five per cent ; that 
commodities had fallen seventy-five or eighty per cent in 

^ Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 107 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 
104. ^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 105. 



10 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

one year, so that those who had given their bonds for cur- 
rent money would be forced to pay cent per cent for the 
loan of such money to their utter ruin. 

There was no doubt great financial confusion and dis- 
tress at this time. The enormous issue for that time of 
X52,000 in bills of credit under the Bank act of 1712 had 
produced the most unfortunate results. The rate of ex- 
change and the price of produce quickly increased. In 
the first year the rate of exchange advanced to 150, and 
in the second to 200 per cent. At this time it was about 
four for one. The subsequent issue of X 15,000 by the 
legislature in 1716, to assist in defraying the expenses of 
the Yamassee war, had tended to further depreciation. 
The people lost confidence in bills of credit, the multipli- 
cation and extension of which was so easy and tempting.^ 
It may have been competent, in order to remedy the evils 
set out in the preamble to the act we are considering, for 
the legislature to have pursued the course adopted in this 
and other States after the revolution, and in the South 
after the late war between the States, and to have estab- 
lished by law a table of depreciation, ascertaining the 
comparative value of these bills with sterling at consecu- 
tive dates, and allowing debts to be collected only at such 
rates. But it was not the purpose of the act in question 
to provide any such equitable measure, the benefits of 
which to be applicable to all persons and classes. The 
measure as disclosed in the title of the act was class 
legislation. It was like much of the legislation of the 
present day, avowedly not in the interest of the public at 
large, but, as would now be said, of "the farmers." The 
act purported to be for the encouragement of Planting, 
and relief of Debtors, and so it went on to provide, not an 
equitable scaling process, but for a legal tender not in 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 163. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 11 

money, but in certain specified articles in kind. It pre- 
scribed that any person who at the time of the passing 
of the act, or during its continuance, who was an inhabit- 
ant of the Settlement, and who should be indebted to 
any person, an inhabitant of the Settlement, might dis- 
charge and pay such indebtedness by the tender of cer- 
tain specified things therein mentioned, i.e. merchant- 
able rice in good and merchantable casks at 40s. per 
hundred, computing five score to tlie hundred, besides 
10s. for each cask; merchantable pitch in good and 
merchantable barrels at 40s. per barrel ; merchantable 
heavy drest deerskins at 8s. 9d. per pound, provided 
that such debt was paid off and discharged in that way 
before the first day of the January following, with interest 
at the rate of ten per cent per annum ; but if not paid 
within the year the debtor was required to tender rice at 
30s. per hundred and was to be allowed but 7s. 6d. for the 
cask, or pitch at 30s. per barrel, and lieavy drest deer- 
skins at 7s. 6d. per pound. The act was not, however, to 
be construed to apply to cases on which there had been 
a special agreement wherein sterling money, pieces of 
eight or other species of gold and silver, had been partic- 
ularly mentioned. If the creditor refused the tender, 
the debtors might apply to a Justice of the Peace who 
should appoint appraisers, and if the goods tendered 
were approved by these, the debt was discharged. 

There is more to be said for this measure, however, than 
one at this day might be inclined to suppose, nor was it 
without precedent in this and other colonies. In Arch- 
dale's time an act provided that the purchase money or rent 
of land might be discharged by the tender of certain agri- 
cultural commodities.^ In consequence of the absence of 

^ Statutes of So. Ca. , vol. II, 96 ; Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. 
(McCrady), 283. 



12 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

coin or of any settled currency in America, the financial 
S3'stem of the early colonists was in a great measure 
based upon exchange in its crudest and simplest form. 
In Virginia, says Mr. Bruce, coin, which is just as much 
of a commodity as an agricultural or manufactured article, 
circulated in Virginia only in small quantities even after 
nine decades had passed since the foundation of the 
colony. Tobacco was the standard of value at the very 
time that the whole community was engaged in planting it. 
It was the money in which all the supplies botli domestic 
and imported were purchased ; in which the tax imposed 
by the public levy was settled ; in which the tithables of 
the minister, the fees of the attorney and the physician, 
the debts due the merchant, the remuneration due the 
mechanic, the wages of the servant, the charges of the 
midwife, and the grave-digger were paid.^ The same con- 
dition existed in Maryland. Tobacco was from the first 
almost the sole currency of that province ; all dealings 
were founded upon it — debts, rents, fines, salaries, levies, 
were all paid in tobacco, and in tobacco all accounts were 
kept.2 In the West Indies the currency was sugar. It 
was in muscovado sugar that several persons in Barbadoes 
paid for tracts of land in Carolina, purcliased from the 
Proprietors.^ 

But in Carolina no commodity of agriculture or manu- 
facture had taken the place of coin, and contracts had not 
been made at this time in view of any such means of 
payment. Sterling was the legal money of the province. 
The act in question was clearly in violation of contracts, and 
one of a nature against which the provision of the present 
Constitution of the United States upon that subject was 

1 Brace's Economic Hist, of Va., vol. II, 494. 

2 Maryland Am. Com. Series (Browne), 114. 

8 See form of receipt in Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 14. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 13 

especially directed. This was rendered necessary by a 
repetition of this device not only in South Carolina, but in 
other States immediately after the revolution. Under 
similar circumstances Massachusetts, after the downfall of 
the continental paj)er, adopted a measure identical with 
that in question except in the articles of tender and pay- 
ment. In 1782 it allowed for one year judgments to be 
satisfied by the tender of neat cattle or other enumerated 
articles at an appraisement. In New Jersey there was a 
law for paying debts in lands or chattels, which was re- 
pealed, however, within eight months of its enactment. 
Maryland, notwithstanding her tobacco currency, adopted 
a stay law from 1782 to 1781, during which a debtor might 
make a tender of slaves or land, or of about anything that 
laud produced. And in this State the precedent now set 
was not only resorted to, but improved upon in the 
famous " barren land law " as it came to be called, under 
which the debtor was authorized to tender to the creditor 
such part of his property, real or personal, as he should 
think proper, even though it were the poorest of his 
estate, and the creditor was obliged to accept it at three- 
fourths of its appraised value. ^ 

A measure of a similar character was an act for paying 
the public dues for which sufficient provision had not 
been made. By this act a tax in kind was laid of 
1,200,000 pounds of merchantable rice to be paid on the 
second Tuesday in March, 1723 ; and commissioners were 
appointed to issue " Rice orders " upon this tax in pay- 
ment of the public dues. These orders were to be current 
in all payments from man to man, and to be deemed 
sufficient tender in law at the rate of 30s. for each 100 
weight of rice, and to be receivable for taxes. ^ 

1 Bancroft's Hist, of the Constit^ition of the U. JS., 168-172 ; Statutes 
of So, Ca., vol. IV, 710. 2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 112. 



14 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Notwithstanding the recent attempt of an uprising by 
the negroes, the Assembly reenacted a measure which had 
been adopted in 1708 ; this was '■'■Ati act for the enlisting 
of Such Trusty Slaves as shall be thought serviceable to this 
settlement in time of Alarms and for encouragement of 
Sailors to serve the same against our enemies^''' etc.^ The 
preamble of the act recites the necessity in case of inva- 
sion of having the assistance of trusty male slaves, from 
sixteen to sixty years of age, to serve against the enemy ; 
that it was very reasonable that such slaves should be 
rewarded for tlie good services they might do, and that 
satisfaction should be made to the owners of such as might 
be killed or maimed ; the act therefore went on to provide 
that the company officers of the Militia throughout the 
Settlement should make a list of such negroes, mulattoes, 
mustees, and Indian slaves as they should judge service- 
able for the purpose not exceeding the number of white 
men under the command of each respective captain nor 
one-sixth part of any such slaves in his division, except- 
ing one slave which should be at the choice of his master 
to attend upon him at alarms. These slaves so enlisted 
upon an alarm were to repair to the colors of the company 
to which they belonged and upon actual invasion were to 
be -accoutred and armed out of the public stores, with a 
good lance, hatchet, or gun with sufficient ammunition, 
and to be under the orders of the Governor. A penalty of 
£20 was imposed upon the owners who refused to send 
their slaves, to be distrained by one of the sergeants of 
the company by virtue of a warrant under the hand and 
seal of the captain in whose division the defaults were 
made. 

The validity of these measures of the revolutionary 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 108. Original act of 1708 has not been 
preserved. The title only is given in vol. II of Stattites, 327. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 15 

government it seems was questioned. Governor Glen 
writing, in 1749, to the Board of Trade, requests instruc- 
tions as to that in regard to the courts, and in 1732, the 
Queen, acting as Guardian of the Kingdom, in council, 
confirms and ratifies another, amending the law in regard 
to process for debt which it was deemed advisable to 
maintain. 1 None other of the acts passed by this Assembly 
after the overthrow of the Proprietary government, were 
so confirmed, and as ratification was deemed necessary, 
in the one case, we may assume that similar action would 
have been taken in each other instance had it been desired 
to enforce them after the establishment of the Royal 
government which was now soon to be effected. 

1 Statutes of So. Co., vol. Ill, 117, 120. 



CHAPTER II 

1720-21 

Mr. Joseph Boone, who with Mr. Berresford had been 
sent by the Assembly to England in 1714 to protest 
against the extraordinary powers conferred upon Chief 
Justice Trott, had remained there during the disturbed 
and exciting year which followed, representing the de- 
plorable condition of affairs in Carolina caused by the 
Indians and pirates, seeking assistance and appealing to 
the Royal government to take the colony under its im- 
mediate protection. In the early part of 1720 he was 
joined in London by Colonel John Barnwell, the agent of 
the temporary government set up upon the overthrow of 
the Propi'ietors. From the arrival of Colonel Barnwell the 
two agents were in constant attendance upon the Board 
of Trade and Plantations, urging the action of that bodj^ 
in regard to the position of South Carolina. But it was 
just at the time of the wildest excitement over the South 
Sea Bubbles, in which some at least of the members of 
the Board were deeply involved, and the vast prov- 
ince of Carolina presented too tempting a subject for 
speculation to be overlooked. Indeed, James Craggs, one 
of the Secretaries of State who went down in the col- 
lapse, — losing at once life and reputation, — appears to 
have had a scheme for putting it into the South Sea 
stock. ^ But Boone and Barnwell were persistent in 

1 See So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 669. The Earl of West- 
moreland, President of the Board, was at the head of one of the " bubbles " 

16 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 17 

pressing upon the attention of the Board of Trade the 
condition of the colony and the necessity of action by 
the Royal government in regard to it. In this they 
were met by the opposing influence of the Proprietors, 
which was still great, — that of Lord John Carteret was 
especially powerful. They presented to the Royal gov- 
ernment a petition of the inhabitants, stating that for the 
preservation of the colony they had been necessitated to 
elect James Moore as Governor, since which they had been 
menaced and were in hourly expectation of invasion by 
Spaniards, Indians, and pirates ; that they had done what 
they could to put themselves in a position of defence, but 
pra_)ed his Majesty's protection and assistance as the 
Lords Proprietors' indigency or neglect liad principally 
caused their calamities. King George at this time was in 
Hanover ; ^ but his Majesty having determined to avail 
liimself of the uprising of the people in South Carolina 
to put an end to the Proprietary government, the Lords 
Justices in whose care he had left the Kingdom decided 
to resume the immediate government of the province. ^ 
On the 11th of August, 1720, an order of council was 
made, directing a commission to be prepared for a Gov- 
ernor of Carolina.^ On the 16th the Earl of Westmore- 
land and other members of the Board of Trade and Plan- 
tation reported to the Lords Justices that in obedience- to 

for smelting copper, and through his influence the Prince of Wales was 
drawn in to accept the poeition of governor of the company. Finding the 
scheme illegal, his Royal Highness withdrew, but not before he had gotten 
£-10,000 by it. John Chetwynde, another member of the Board of Trade, 
liad a scheme which was known as " Chetwynde's Bubble." Coxe's Lord 
Oxford, vol. II., 187, 188 ; PaW. Hist., vol. VII, 654, 663. 

' He embarked on the 15th of June at Greenwich on boai-d the Caro- 
lina Yacht {Pari. Hist., vol. VII, 652), and returned 11th of November, 
}T20{Ihid., 678). 

2 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 252. 3 11,1^^ ^1. II, 142. 

VOL. II C 



18 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the order in council of the 11th inst. they had prepared 
a draft of a commission for a Governor of Carolina follow- 
ing the copy of a commission to Colonel Copley for the 
province of Maryland (temp. Will. 3).^ 

The reason for adopting this precedent in the draft of 
the commission is obvious. In this Revolution of 1719 
South Carolina had indeed but followed the example of 
Maryland in 1690 in overthrowing the Proprietary gov- 
ernment of Lord Baltimore, and begging William III to 
take the government into his hands, which William had 
done. 2 The cases were therefore as yet parallel. The 
title to the soil in Maryland had remained in the Pro- 
prietor, Lord Baltimore ; as the soil of South Carolina yet 
remained in the Proprietors of this province, while in each 
instance the King assumed the government. 

The Board also reported that they would prepare a 
draft of instruction for the person who might be ap- 
pointed Governor. A curious matter here appears in 
their report showing that the Board were either igno- 
rant of the condition of affairs in the two Carolinas, or 
were determined to ignore the action of the Governor and 
Council in North Carolina, in repudiating the revolution in 
South Carolina, and to include that colony in the Royal 
government as well as the latter province. 

They call the attention of the Lords Justices to the fact 
that although Carolina was granted entire to the Lords 
Proprietors it was found convenient to divide it into 
two provinces, viz. North and South Carolina. The Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina had sometimes been also Governor 
of North Carolina, with power of appointing a deputy 
there. The draft of the commission which they had 
prepared was for Carolina in general, and they submitted 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 142. 

2 Am. Com. Series, Maryland (Browne), 155. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 19 

therefore whether the person appointed should be em- 
powered by his instructions to nominate a Lieutenant 
or Deputy Governor for North Carolina or whether the 
Lieutenant Governor should not rather be appointed by 
his Majesty as practised in the Leeward Islands. Messrs. 
Boone and Barnwell, who appear to have been cognizant of 
all that was going on, if not advising, were at hand no doubt 
to inform the Board that Governor Eden was still Governor 
of North Carolina under the Proprietors, unquestioned by 
the people of that colony. But the Board were persistent. 
In a communication of the 30th, submitting to the Lords 
Justices a draft of instructions for a Governor, they again 
urge the appointment of a Lieutenant Governor for North 
Carolina, subject to the Governor of South Carolina. 
They wrote: " In our letter to your Excell: of the 16th In- 
stant which accompanied the Draught of a Commission for 
his Majesty's Governing Carolina, We observe to your 
Excellencies that Carolina was at present divided into 
two Provinces, and that it might in our Opinion be for his 
Maj'^' service to appoint a Lieutenant Governor of North 
Carolina subject to such orders as he should from time 
to time receive from the Governor of South Carolina as 
his superior officer, and this we take the liberty now to 
repeat as a matter wherein no time is to be lost."^ This 
advice the Lords Justices did not however follow ; there 
was no ground upon which to base the subversion of the 
Proprietary government of North Carolina. 

In this communication of the 30th of August the Board 
of Trade announce that they were preparing a Represen- 
tation to be laid before their Excellencies the Lords 
Justices concerning the state of all the British colonies on 
the continent of America, especially in regard to certain 
matters relating to Carolina and Nova Scotia, the two 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 393. 



20 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

frontiers of the British Empire in America to the north 
and to the south, which being botli of them at this time 
in the utmost disorder, did naturally demand their Excel- 
lencies' more immediate care and protection ; but in an- 
ticipation of that communication, considering the great 
disorder and unsettled condition of the province of 
South Carolina which had lately shaken off the Pro- 
prietors' government, as incapable of affording them 
protection, and the exposure of the inhabitants to the in- 
cursions of the barbarous Indians, to the encroachment of 
their European neighbors, and the danger that the whole 
province was lately under of being massacred by their own 
slaves, who were too numerous for the white men, they 
urged that his Majesty should forthwith send four bat- 
talions with a considerable number of great guns, and a 
suitable supply of warlike stores for the several forts they 
proposed to be built there. 

The person to be appointed Governor to inaugurate the 
new government for his Majesty had been determined 
upon, before the draft of instruction for that officer had 
been settled. In the commission as it passed the great 
seal the blanks were tilled up with the name of Francis 
Nicholson, Esq.^ 

With the exception perhaps of Sir Edmund Andros, 
whom it had been his fortune to follow in more than one 
government, General Sir Francis Nicholson had had 
the largest colonial experience of any person in that 
service. When James the Second, in 1688, ordered the 
consolidation of the Northern Colonies under the title of 
New England, and sent Sir Edmund Andros as Governor- 
in-cliief, Francis Nicholson, then a captain of a company 
of soldiers sent from England, was made Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor of the Dominion of New York ; and when Sir Ed- 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 142. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 21 

miind upon the accession of William and Mary was 
deposed by the revolt in Massachusetts, and imprisoned, 
the Royal authority in New York devolved upon him. 
But his right to govern was questioned, and in the dis- 
turbances which followed he does not appear to have acted 
with firmness or decision. He was a stanch member of 
the Church of England. Of that there can be no doubt, 
but it was charged that in the camp of King James he 
had reverently kneeled at the celebration of the mass, 
and was now denounced as a papist in the interest of 
James. He quailed before the people of New York, and 
upon some show of resistance went off to England in 
1689, abandoning the field. ^ He must, however, have 
successfully vindicated his conduct, for the next year he 
was sent as Lieutenant Governor to Virginia, under Lord 
Howard of Eftingham, who, preferring to remain in Eng- 
land, drawing his salary there, the government was ad- 
ministered by Nicholson. In Virginia at this time he 
exhibited excellent qualities as a ruler. He made him- 
self popular with the people, devoted himself to the im- 
provement of trade and the encouragement of manufac- 
tures. He instituted public games and offered prizes to 
such as excelled in riding, running, shooting, wrestling, 
and broadsword. Most to his honor he entered heartily 
into the project of the College, organizing a private sub- 
scription for the purpose, to which he contributed himself 
£2500. William and Mary College remains a lasting me- 
morial to his wisdom and generosity. He was relieved of 
this government in 1692, when Lord Howard was removed 
and Sir Edmund Andros sent out to Virginia as Governor. ^ 
In July, 1694, Nicholson succeeded Sir Lionel C-opley as 
Governor of Maryland. Then he was again the liberal 

1 Am. Com. Wealth Series (Roberts), New York, 201-204. 
* Virginia Am. Com. Series (Cooke), 302. 



22 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and devoted patron of the church and tlie zealous friend 
of education, but exhibited the characteristics for which he 
became so well known, — hasty in temper, utterly lacking 
in self-restraint, imperious and arbitrary, in demeanor vain 
and conceited and often tyrannical. Notwithstanding his 
devotion to the church he became involved in conflict 
with Dr. Bray, the Bishop of London's Commissary in 
Maryland. But with all these faults there were many 
redeeming qualities which made him popular among those 
over whom he bore rule, and secured for him the respect 
and admiration of many of widely differing opinions and 
beliefs.^ 

From Maryland he was again sent to Virginia to succeed 
Andros. His second rule in Virginia lasted seven years, 
from 1698 to 1705. Here he was the same vain, conceited, 
passionate, and changeable character, and finally made for 
himself a most eccentric record, mixing up a love affair 
with public business, denouncing all who took part in the 
marriage of a young lady upon whom he had fixed his 
affections, and threatening to " cut the throats of three 
men, — the bridegroom, the minister, and the justice who 
issued the license." This affair was involved in a differ- 
ence of another kind with Dr. Blair, the Bishop of Lon- 
don's Commissary in Virginia. With this clergyman 
Andros had also quarrelled, and it was supposed that it 
Avas through his influence Andros had been removed. But 
though Nicholson succeeded in dividing the clergy, Com- 
missary Blair again triumphed and secured his removal 
as he had that of his predecessor Andros. And so it 
happened that Nicholson, whose purse and pen were ever 
at the service of the church, by whose munificent bene- 
factions churches were erected and supported all along 
the coast from Massachusetts to Carolina, was driven from 

1 Hist, of Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 127. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 23 

the country by the two commissaries whose names he 
contemptuously remarked are " monosyllables and begin 
with B." 1 From Virginia he went away to fight the 
French in Acadia,^ and became Governor of Nova Scotia, 
from which he considered himself very unjustly relieved.^ 
He was in England in 1713, for in January of that year 
the Lords Proprietors commissioned him to come to North 
Carolina to inquire into the disorders then growing out of 
the dissensions between Hyde, Pollock, and Moseley, and 
the Indian uprising. But he did not come. Such, indeed, 
were the sad accounts which reached England, and such the 
indifference of the Proprietors, that for aught they knew 
there was not a white man left alive in North Carolina.^ 

With Andros, Nicholson had contributed to the build- 
ing of the first King's Chapel in Boston. He had been 
instrumental in founding churches in Rhode Island, New 
York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, besides found- 
ing in the latter province the College of William and 
Mary, and the Church act of South Carolina in 1712 re- 
cites that several parochial libraries had been established 
in the province by the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel and by the Hon. Francis Nicholson.^ As his 
advice and services had been sought in 1713 for the settle- 
ment of affairs in North Carolina, so the Proprietors and 
the Board of Trade had applied to him for counsel upon 
the rising of the Yamassees in South Carolina in 1715. 
He had been knighted and was now Sir Francis Nicholson. 

His character reminds us somewhat of that of Chief 

1 Hist, of Am. Episcopal Gh. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 121. 

2 Virginia Am. Com. Series (Cooke), 308. 

3 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 277-286. 

* Hawk's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 553 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., 
vol. II, 9. 

^ Hist, of Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 186, 217, 230, 
307, 311, 323, 600, 601 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 375. 



24 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Justice Nicholas Trott, as well as of that of Colonel Will- 
iam Khett. He had not the profound learning of Trott, nor 
did he in America exhibit the brilliant courage of Khett ; 
l)ut like both he was a devoted churchman. If without 
himself the learning of Trott, he was a most ardent friend 
of education ; and if without the dauntless courage of 
Khett, he was in some respects as reckless. Time had 
now however cooled his temper, and he was no longer the 
passionate lover to embroil his government with the affairs 
of his heart. Such was the man who was selected to inau- 
gurate the Koyal government in South Carolina. 

The essential difference between the Proprietary gov- 
ernment on the one hand, and the Koyal government on 
the other, was in the fact that in the former the patent or 
charter was definite, certain, and unchanging, while in the 
latter the scheme of government prescribed in the in- 
structions to Governors was dependent entirely upon the 
pleasure of the Crown as expressed from time to time 
throucyh the Board of Trade and Plantations. In the 
former thq. charter was at once a grant and an assurance 
of the power and right of rule granted by the Crown to 
the Proprietor, and a limitation upon that power in favor 
alike of the royal authority which granted it, and of the 
people over whom it was to be exercised. It gave the 
Proprietors the right to rule and govern under certain 
restrictions and limitations, and while these terms were 
observed the power was regarded as irrevocable. If they 
were violated, the charter was forfeited. The remedy in 
such case against the grantees who abused the power 
was by legal proceedings to forfeit the charter for its 
violation. In a Proprietary government there was thus 
a definite written law governing the three parties to it, 
i.e. (1) the King who granted it, (2) the Proprietors to 
whom it was granted, and (3) the people over whom it 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 25 

was to be exercised. In the Royal Colonial government 
there were but two parties: (1) the Crown, and (2) the 
colonists, and between these there was no charter or 
agreement. The government was such as the King for 
the time being, and for his present pleasure, might pre- 
scribe and impose. 

At the instigation of the King's officers, and with t^he 
Royal connivance, the people had risen and overthrown 
the Proprietary government, and had appealed to the King 
to be taken under his Majesty's immediate care and gov- 
ernment. Plis Majesty had listened to their appeal and 
had taken them under his protection. He had selected 
the person whom he would appoint, and had commissioned 
him as Governor. The next step was to determine the 
scheme of government he was to inaugurate. This matter 
Avas referred to the Board of Trade and Plantations with 
directions from the Lords Justices to hasten their report.^ 
In the preparation of this report Mr. Boone, Colonel 
Barnwell, and Sir Francis Nicholson, who were in attend- 
ance, were consulted from time to time, and answered 
inquiries addressed to them. Colonel Barnwell appears to 
have been particularly consulted in regard to posts to be 
established on the Altamaha, to protect the province 
against the Spaniards, French, and Indians on the south 
and west. 2 

The scheme of government thus prepared was in the form 
of ^'' Instructions for Francis Nicliolson^ Esq.^ as his Majesty's 
Captam Creneral and Commander in Chief over the ^jrovince 
of Carolina.'''' It was comprised in ninety-six sections. 
These instructions remained the basis of instruction to all 
subsequent Governors of the province under the Royal 
government. A sketch of its principal provisions is neces- 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 142. 

2 Ibid., vol. I, 253, 254 ; vol. II, 142, 143. 



26 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sary to the understanding of the histoiy of the Royal 
government, and of the issues whicli arose under it.^ 

The Governor was required to appoint a council not 
exceeding twelve, and to transmit their names and quali- 
tications. To this council he was to administer the oaths 
and to communicate his instructions. The members of 
this council were to have freedom of debate and vote. 
A list of twelve persons was to be nominated as fitting to 
supply contingent vacancies in the body. The councillors 
were to possess certain qualifications. This number was 
not to be augmented or diminished. Following the prec- 
edent under the Proprietary government the number of 
three was constituted a quorum, still the Governor was 
not to act with a less quorum than five except upon ex- 
traordinary emergencies. Councillors wilfully absenting 
themselves were to be suspended. 

It is evident that it was not intended in setting up the 
Royal government to change and overturn all that had 
existed under the Proprietary rule. The frame of gov- 
ernment as it previously existed was to be retained except 
wherein it was by their instructions especially modified. 
Thus the only instruction in regard to the constitution of 
tlie Assembly was that the members should be elected by 
freeholders only. The system of representation and the 
election law under the act of 1716 were not changed. 

The style of enacting laws, or as it would be now stated, 
the form of the enacting clause of statutes, was prescribed. 
The passing of bills of an unusual or extraordinary nature 
was to be suspended till his Majesty's pleasure should be 
known, or a saving clause to be inserted ; existing laws 
were to be examined and revised. The Governor was re- 
quired to send copies of all laws for the inspection of the 
Royal government, with dates of passage and of approval, 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 145. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 27 

together with observations and reasons for their enact- 
ment. The qualification of jurors was prescribed. Oaths 
were to be administered, touching the succession of the 
Crown. In all acts for levying money or imposing fines 
and penalties it was to be expressly declared that the 
same was reserved to his Majesty. Gifts and presents to 
the Governor were prohibited ; a suitable salary was to be 
provided for him and for other officers. In case of the 
absence of the Governor, one-half his salary was to be paid 
to the acting Governor, The Governor was not to come 
to England without leave; but if sick might remove to 
New York, or some other convenient spot for a change. 
In the event of his decease or absence, and no one being 
commissioned in his room, the eldest councillor should take 
upon himself the administration, but was to pass no acts 
but such as were immediately necessary. Then followed a 
provision which in view of what subsequently took place 
is important. It charged the Governor not to permit any 
clause to be inserted in any law for levying money or the 
value of money, whereby the same should not be made 
liable to be accounted for with his Majesty in the King- 
dom and to the Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury 
or to the High Treasurer of Great Britain for the time 
being. Books of account of receipts and payments were 
to be kept, which were to be forwarded every half year or 
oftener. No public money was to be disposed of other- 
wise than by warrant under the Governor's hand and with 
the advice of the Council. 

Laws under the Proprietary government had usually 
been made of force, but for twenty-three months. For 
the future no laws were to be enacted for a less time than 
two years. Repealed acts were not to be reenacted with- 
out the express leave of his Majesty. 

The Royal government had been very ready to accept 



28 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the action of the colonists in overthrowing the Pi'oprietors' 
rule, but it did not intend to allow them to suppose that 
in doing so tliey had acquired any peculiar political 
rights or liberties. The colonists had exchanged masters ; 
they had made no gain in political freedom. Of this fact 
the instructions of the Royal Governor left them in no 
doubt or uncertainty. In three particulars the curb was 
put sharply upon them. These restrictions were pre- 
scribed in the 35tli section. It is as follows : ^ — 

" 35. And whereas the members of several assemblies in ye Planta- 
tions have of late yeai's assumed to themselves Privileges no ways 
belonging to them, especially of being protected from suits at law 
during the time they remain of the assemblies to the great prejudice 
of their creditors, and the obstructing of Justice. And some others 
have presumed to adjourn themselves at pleasure without leave of 
his Majesty's Governor first obtained. And others have taken upon 
them the sole framing of money Bills refusing to let the council alter 
or amend the same, all which are very detrimental to his Majesty's 
prerogatives. If upon your calling an assembly in Carolina you find 
them insist upon any of the above s** Privileges you are to signify 
to them that it is his Majesty's express will and pleasure that you do 
not allow any protection to any member of the council or assembly 
further than in their persons, and that only during the sitting of the 
assembly and that you are not to allow them to adjourn themselves 
otherwise than die in diem except Sundays and Holidays without 
leave from you. And that the council have the like power of framing 
or allowing money bills as the assembly," etc. 

There was certainly nothing unreasonable in the re- 
striction of the privilege of protection from suits of mem- 
bers of the Assembly to these persons, and that only during 
the sitting of the Assembly ; but the other two prohibi- 
tions were serious impairments of legislative privileges as 
existing in the Parliament at home — the model of this. 
The distinction in England between an adjournment and 

1 Public Records, MS., vol. VIII, 114. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 29 

a prorogation was that one was the act of tlie legislative 
body — the Lords or Commons ; and the other the act of 
Royal authority. The adjournment was nothing more than 
a continuance of the session from one day to another, or for 
a certain limited time, — a number of days, — and though it 
was usual for the Houses to adjourn at the request of the 
King, as his Majesty could always enforce his wishes by a 
prorogation if refused by the Houses, yet an adjournment 
was still in the volition of each House. The prorogation 
was the continuance of the Parliament from one session to 
another by the act of the King, the effect of which was 
at once to suspend all business until Parliament should 
be summoned again. ^ It was then in the power of the 
Royal authority at any time to put an end to a session by 
proclamation, and to say when the Parliament should 
meet again ; but it was a decided curtailment of the 
powers of the Assembly of South Carolina when that 
body was prohibited from adjourning otherwise than from 
day to day and except for Sundays and holidays, without 
leave of the Governor. 

The third provision in this section was radical and must 
have been intended to intimate at the outset of the Royal 
government that the colonists in Carolina were not to pre- 
sume to claim the rights and privileges of Englishmen at 
home. It was the ancient, indisputable privilege and 
right of the House of Commons that all grants and sub- 
sidies should begin in the House. The Commons in Eng- 
land were so jealous of this privilege that since the 
Restoration they had refused to permit the least altera- 
tion or amendment to be made by the Lords to the mode 
of taxing the people by a money bill, under which appel- 
lation were included all bills by which taxes were levied 
or money raised. This provision in the instructions of 

1 May's Laic and Practice of Parliament, 43. 



30 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the Governor at once recognized the council as a legisla- 
tive body, and not a mere advisory board, — an Upper 
House, — and prescribed that unlike the House of Lords 
in England it should have the right and power to origi- 
nate measures of taxation. It is well to mark and under- 
stand the purpose and effect of these provisions of the 
Governor's instructions, as in the history of the Royal 
government it will be found that questions were contin- 
ually arising in regard to them. 

For the present no changes were to be made in the courts 
or judges, but a particular account of all establishments of 
jurisdiction courts, offices and officers, fees and privileges, 
were to be sent to the Board with a list of officers 
employed under the government. Life and property 
were not to be taken otherwise than by established laws. 
Writs were to be issued in the King's name. Frequent 
courts were to be held and justice administered without 
delay or partiality. Appeals in civil causes were to lie in 
cases of error to the Governor and Council, with liberty 
under certain provisions to appeal from the decision of the 
Governor and Council to the King. Pirates seized were 
to be sent to England. 

Liberty of conscience was permitted to all persons 
except papists. Religion in accordance with the observ- 
ances of the Church of England was to be established, 
churches to be improved, maintenances and houses to be 
allotted for ministers, who were to have a certificate from 
the Bishop of London or some other Bishop. Ministers 
officiating without license were to be reported. The 
jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was definitely settled 
in the province, and schoolmasters coming from England 
were to be licensed by his Lordship. Other schoolmas- 
ters were to obtain the Governor's license. A table of 
marriages was to be hung up in every church. Drunken- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 31 

ness and other vices were to be discountenanced and pun- 
ished. Inhuman severities were to be prevented, and 
encouragement given to the conversion of negroes and 
Indians to the Christian religion. 

Martial law was not to be put in force without the con- 
sent of the Council. Care should be taken that militia 
marches and musters should not unnecessarily impede the 
affairs of the inhabitants. Inventory of arms, ammunition, 
and stores to be transmitted home, and storehouses for 
arms to be provided. The Governor was to prepare an 
account for his Majesty of the state of defence of the 
province. Surveys of landing-places and harbors were 
to be made and fortifications erected where necessary. 

Entries of exports and imports and naval officers' 
accounts were to be sent to England. The Governor was 
to give an account of the neighboring colonies and the cor- 
respondence held with them. Justice was to be done to 
the Indians, their affections gained, and the Indian trade 
regulated. Commodities were not to be engrossed. ^ 
Merchants and other traders to be encouraged. Pay- 
ments were to be duly made for negroes, accounts of 
their importations to be sent. 

The Governor was to give an account of the wants 
and defects of the province and suggest improvements. 
Instructions were given controlling the issue of commis- 
sions of marque and reprisals and of privateers. In all 
cases not provided for by the instructions, the Governor 
was to act by the advice of the Council. He was for- 
bidden under any color of power whatsoever to proclaim 
war without his Majesty's consent unless it be against 
Indians or in emergencies. 

^ Enc/ross, to buy up in large quantities in order to raise a demand and 
sell again at a higher price, to forestall, to monopolize. — Blackstone. 
In the parlance of this day, to create " a corner." 



32 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Such was the scheme of government prescribed by the 
Royal authorities, and under which the province of South 
Carolina was to be administered for a period of a little 
over fifty years. 

Sir Francis Nicholson's commission and instructions 
were approved by order of Council of the 20th of Septem- 
ber, 1720, and on the 27th he was sworn as Governor of 
South Carolina. 1 He did not come out, however, for 
several months after, but he was not idle during that 
time. He appears to have continued in attendance upon 
the Board of Trade with Mr. Boone and Colonel Barn- 
well in consultation about the affairs of the colony, 
providing for its security and endeavoring to secure 
military supplies. It Avas proposed to establish a fort 
on the Altamaha as a protection against the Spaniards, 
French, and Indians, and to garrison it with an inde- 
pendent company of one hundred men. The most mate- 
rial information upon this subject was furnished by 
Colonel Barnwell, but as General Nicholson intended to 
supervise that business himself, ' it was not deemed best 
to cumber him with instructions.^ 

In the meanwhile the Carolinians were waiting in great 
anxiety the new Governor's arrival. James Moore, the 
temporary Governor, and his Council write December 21, 
1720, to Mr. Boone that they are of opinion that most 
of the differences between the Lords Proprietors and the 
inhabitants had been occasioned by the misrepresenta- 
tions of Colonel Rhett and his brother-in-law, the late 
Judge Trott, and again on the 19th of January, 1720-21, 
they write of the great joy of the province of the news of 
his Excellency, Sir Francis Nicholson's coming the next 
month, and desire that Colonel Rhett, that enemy ••' to his 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 150. 

2 Ibid., 148. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 33 

country and detestable reviler of mankind," may be 
removed from his office of surveyor and comptroller of 
his Majesty's customs.^ 

Governor Nicholson arrived at last on his Majesty's 
ship the Enterprise on the 22d of May, 1721.2 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 231. 
^ Ibid., 232. 

VOL. II — D 



CHAPTER III 

1720-22 

Governor Robert Johnson, the last Proprietary Gov- 
ernor, had not acquiesced in the establishment of the revo- 
lutionary government under James Moore. He had from 
time to time asserted the authority of the Proprietors by 
appointing officers when opportunity offered and persons 
could be induced to accept his commissions. In March, 
1720-21, Captain Hildesly, of his Majesty's ship the Flam- 
hourgh stationed at Charles Town, had taken a commission 
from him as Colonel of the Militia of Berkeley, which 
caused great uneasiness ; and as late as the 9th of May 
he had given notice to Governor Moore of his intention to 
resume the government for the Proprietors.^ But upon 
the arrival of Sir Francis Nicholson on the 22d with a 
commission from the King he submitted, and recognizing 
the Royal authority abandoned all efforts in behalf of their 
Lordships. 

The people in general, says Hewatt, congratulated one 
another on the happy change, and received Sir Francis 
with the most uncommon and extravagant demonstrations 
of joy. Murmur and discontent, together with fears of 
danger and oppression, were now banished from the prov- 
ince. Happy under the Royal care, they resolved to for- 
get all former animosities and divisions, and bury all past 
offences in eternal oblivion. They vied with each other to 
show who should be the most faithful subject of his Maj- 
esty and the most zealous in promoting the union, peace, 
and prosperity of the settlement. From a convulsed and 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 232-256. 
34 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT S5 

distracted state they now looked upon themselves as 
happily delivered, and anticipated in imagination all the 
blessings of freedom and security followed by industry 
and plenty approaching, and, as it were, ready to diffuse 
their happy influence over the country. ^ 

Colonel John Barnwell returned with Governor Nichol- 
son and was at once sent by him to establish a fort on the 
Altamaha. He was commissioned commander of the 
Southern forces, and orders were issued for the delivery 
to him of four field pieces with powder and stores. Gov- 
ernor Nicholson, as we have seen, had intended himself to 
supervise the establishment of this outpost ; but finding 
civil affairs pressing, he turned over this matter to Colonel 
Bai'nwell, and devoted himself to the settlement of the 
new administration.^ He was evidently much pleased 
with his reception and with the country. On the 20th 
of July he writes to Allured Poj^ple, Secretary of the 
Board of Trade, that before the breaking up of the Assem- 
bly which he had called, he trusted that all affairs, either 
civil, ecclesiastical, or military, would be settled for his 
Majesty's interests as well as for that of the Lords Pro- 
prietors.^ 

Soon after his arrival he had issued writs for the elec- 
tion of a new Assembly, upon the meeting of which the 
members entered with zeal and cheerfulness upon the 
affairs of the province. They chose James Moore, their 
late Revolutionary Governor, Speaker of the House of 
Assembly, of which choice Sir Francis Nicholson exer- 
cising the Royal prerogative declared his entire appro])a- 
tion. Their first measure was to pass '■'-An Act for a most- 
joyful and just Recognition of the immediate^ lawful^ and 
undoubted Succession of His Most Sacred Majesty^ King 

1 Hewatt's HiH. of So. Ca., vol. I, 290. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc.'of So. Ca., vol. I, 232, 257, 258. ^ j^,-^., 260. 



36 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

GEORGrE, to the Crown of G-reat Britain^ France^ and 
Ireland^ of the Province of South Carolina, and all His 
Majesty's Dominions.'' By this act, in the most extrava- 
gant hxnguage, they decLared the unspeakable rejoicing of 
the people in demonstrating their love, zeal, and affection 
for his Most Sacred Majesty, and their recognition of him 
as their sovereign King.i Their next was to discontinue 
and put a stop to all suits at law growing out of Moore's 
administration of the temporary government until his 
Majesty's pleasure should be known in regard to them ; 
by another act all judicial proceedings and executions 
for levying taxes, etc., under that administration, were 
confirmed. 2 These acts were deemed proper and neces- 
sary for the restoration of harmony and tranquillity among 
the people, and tended greatly to restore peace among the 
hitherto warring factions. 

Then turning to subjects of ordinary legislation a quar- 
antine act was passed ; ^ one regulating the recovery of 
small debts ;* and another, the reorganizing the Court 
of Chancery.^ The act of usury j)assed under Moore's ad- 
ministration was reenacted.^ Then the Assembly passed 
to the more important subject of elections and revised 
the acts of 1716 and 1719 upon the subject, which had 
been one of the principal causes which led to the over- 
throw of the Proprietary government, and curiously 
enough the act now passed was to be the subject of the 
first serious difference with the Royal government they 
were now so joyfully proclaiming. 

Following the act of 1716 and that of 1719 the church 
wardens were made the managers of elections, or in case 
there should be no church wardens the Governor was to 
name such persons for the purpose as lie should think fit. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. HI, 125. ^ j^,-^.^ 12.5, 127. 

» Ibid., 127. * Ibid., 131. 5 Ibid., 132. « Ibid., 132. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 37 

Every person empowered to execute writs of election — 
warden or other appointed — was required to be sworn 
by a Justice of the Peace faithfully to do so. The prac- 
tice which grew up under this clause was the cause of 
offence to Governor Boone in 1762. Notice of elections 
was to be given at the door of each parish church two 
Sundays before the time appointed. The qualifications of 
electors were modified. Under the act of 1716 a resi- 
dence in the province of six months before the election 
and a personal property ownership to the value of X30 
current money were required. Under this act it was 
required that the voter should have been a resident and 
an inhabitant of the province one year before the election, 
and to have held a freehold of at least fifty acres of land 
or been taxed the preceding year 20s. to support the gov- 
ernment. Under the act of 1716 the qualifications of a 
member of the House of Assembly had been that he should 
be the owner of <£500 in personal property or 500 acres of 
land. Under this act the qualifications prescribed were a 
residence in the province of twelve months before the 
election and property ownership in one's own right of a 
settled plantation or freehold of 500 acres of land, and ten 
slaves or personal property to the value of XI 000. The 
manner of conducting elections was not materially changed. 
The polls were not to continue more than two days. The 
electors were to be enrolled in a book or roll to be provided 
by the church wardens, and the voting was to be by ballot 
in the manner, and under the same restrictions, as pre- 
scribed in the acts of 1716 and 1719. The representation of 
the parishes was left as prescribed in the act of 1719. The 
Commons' House of Assembly was to consist of thirty-six 
members, to wit : St. Philip's five members, Christ Church 
two, St. John's three, St. Andrew's three, St. George's 
two, St. James's Goose Creek, four, St. Thomas's and St. 



liO HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA I 

Dennis's three, St. Paul's four, St. Bartholomew's four, • 

St. Helena's four, St. James's Santee with Winyaw two. 
The members of the House were to have the same powers 
and privileges as formerly, provided they did not conflict 
with his Majesty's instructions. Persons entitled to vote 
were not liable to arrest on their journey to or on their 
return from the place of election. ^ 

An act was passed regulating the Indian trade by 
which unlicensed persons were prohibited from trading 
with Indians except with certain nations or tribes who 
were deemed resident in the settlement. Colonel Will- 
iam Bull, George Chicken, and John Herbert were ap- 
pointed Commissioners of the Trade. ^ By another act 
the Hon. Francis Yonge and John Lloyd, Esq. were 
appointed agents to transact and solicit the affairs of 
the province in England, and Arthur Middleton, Ralph 
Izard, Richard Allein, Thomas Hepworth, Charles Hill, 
and Andrew Allen a Committee of Correspondence with 
them.^ To these William Blakeway, Richard Berresford, 
and John Barnwell were added by ordinance of September 
21st.* Alexander Parris was declared Public Treasurer, 
John Brown Comptroller, and Colonel Michael Brewton 
Powder Receiver.^ The Royal government thus allowed 
the choice of these officers by the Assembly — a matter which 
had caused so much controversy with the Proprietors. 

It was estimated that the sum of X 32,243 19s. 6d. Avas 
necessary to provide for the current expenses and public 
debts of the province. Of this sum it was computed that 
duties arising from the exports and imports of the prov- 
ince would amount to X7995 19s., which appropriated to 
the discharge of the public debt would leave the sum 
to be provided for the present year £24,248 6d. There 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 135. 2 ji>j,i^ 141. 

3 Ibid., 146. 4 ji)ia_^ 157. 6 7/,,v?., 148. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 39 

remained in the hands of the commissioners X7000 of the 
X 15,000 of Rice bills, and these applied to the debt 
would reduce the amount to be raised otherwise to 
£17,248 6d. To meet this last amount an act was 
passed imposing a tax on land and negroes. This act 
we shall soon see repealed by the Lords Justices in Eng- 
land by an order in council August, 1723. ^ 

The Assembly, after passing ^'■An act for granting to His 
Majesty a duty and imposition on Negroes^ Liquors^ and 
other Croods and Merchandise imported into and exported 
out of the Province,'''' ^ adjourned and met again in Janu- 
ary, 1721-22, but did little business, adjourning from 
time to time. Its principal measure was an act setting 
off from St. James, Santee, the settlement at Winyaw, in 
Craven County, into a distinct parish by the name of 
Prince George's Parish.^ 

Elaborate and particular instructions to Francis Yonge 
and John Lloyd, the agents of South Carolina, were pre- 
pared. Upon their arrival in England they were to wait 
upon Lord Carteret, and if the title to the soil had not 
been vested in his Majesty they were to represent the diffi- 
culty in settling the frontiers until this was done. But 
this difficulty was not to be speedily removed. The Pro- 
visional government which Sir Francis Nicholson was now 
inaugurating was to continue for seven j^ears, while nego- 
tiations between the Royal government and the Proprie- 
tors were being carried on for this purpose, and not even 
at the end of that time was a complete surrender to be 
made, Lord Carteret, to whom the agents were thus par- 
ticularly instructed to apply upon the subject, even then 
refusing to join in the surrender of his territorial rights 
under the charter.* 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 149-157. 2 ji)ia., 159. « Ibid., 171. 
* So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 679, 680. 



40 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The agents were instructed to set forth the necessity 
of a military force to secure and defend the frontiers. 
They were to endeavor to have rice taken off the enu- 
merated list in the Navigation acts, and also the duty 
upon cedar timbers ; they were to obtain, if possible, a 
bounty to be allowed upon silk of Carolina manufacture. 
If North Carolina fell into the King's hands, they were to 
represent the necessity of its being a dependent government 
upon the government of South Carolina by showing how 
much their province suffered by the running away of slaves 
and inhabitants to North Carolina where they were suc- 
cored. In case it was to continue a distinct government, 
then measures should be taken to settle the boundaries 
between the two provinces. They were to request the 
King's picture and arms to be sent for a public building 
in Charles Town; also a set of plate altar pieces, etc., 
for the new church, St. Philip's, which they were to 
pray might be called St. George's Church. Then the 
instructions touched a subject about which there was to 
be a bitter controversy. They were to ask that leave 
might be given to incorporate Charles Town, as near as 
might be agreeable, to the charter of the city of New 
York. Then followed instructions upon many other 
subjects not necessary to be mentioned.^ 

These instructions were received in London early in 
May and communicated to Lord Carteret on the 9th of 
that month.2 But Governor Nicholson, with whom the 
incorporation of the town appears to have been a favor- 
ite measure, and the,^ssembly did not wait to obtain the 
permission they requested for leave to incorporate it. 
They proceeded at once to do so, and on the 23d of 
June, 1722, passed an act for the purpose entitled ''An 
Act for the Grood Grovernment of Charles Tow7i.'' ^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 260. « ji,ia, 

8 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 179. 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 41 

No copy of the text of this act has been preserved, but 
from minutes of amendments proposed, found in the Com- 
mons' journal of the 15th of June, 1722, and occasional allu- 
sions to it, we learn that by it the name of the town was 
changed to that of Charles City and Port ; there was to be 
an annual election of a Mayor on the King's birthday. 
The Mayor and Aldermen were to constitute a General 
Court with municipal and legislative as well as judicial 
powers in certain causes. They were to regulate the 
markets and fairs in the town which were authorized by 
the act, the first of which was to be kept on the lirst Tues- 
day in May and another on his present Majesty's corona- 
tion day, the 20th of October, so zealous was the Assembly 
to impress royalty upon every measure. This city govern- 
ment was actually installed, and was in operation for a year 
when it was repealed by order of the Lords Justices in 
council the 27th of June, 1723. William Gibbon appears 
to have been elected Mayor by the Council and House 
and to have entered upon his duties. As Mayor of 
Charles City he makes representation to the Council of 
the desire of the General Court at their own expense to 
erect a market place. And the Governor sends a message 
to the Assembly proposing that the sword of State which 
had been purchased by the country and usually carried 
before the Governor of the Proprietors, but which he did 
not think was proper to be used by any of his Majesty's 
Governors, Avith the consent of his Majesty's Council 
and that of the House, should be given to the corporation 
of Charles City and Port to be carried before the Mayor, 
which suggestion he supposes will be approved as both 
Houses were so sensible of Mr. Gibbon's qualifications 
that they had unanimously chosen him as the first Mayor. 
The proposition was agreed to. 

The congregation of St. Philip's first worshipped in 



42 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the new brick churcli (which had been begnn in 1710, 
and was just now coniijleted) on Easter Sunday, 1723, 
whereupon it was ordered by the Assembly that the old 
church and churchyard should be given to the corpora- 
tion of Charles City for the holding of their General 
Court and for public uses — all persons nevertheless be- 
ing at liberty to be buried in the churchyard near their 
relatives. 

But the sword of State had not long to bear the igno- 
miny of this degradation from a provincial to a municipal 
position ; the passage of the act was bitterly resented, and 
appeals were at once made both at home and in England for 
its repeal. A petition was addressed to the Hon. James 
Moore, Speaker, and the rest of the Commons' House of 
Assembly by persons claiming to be the major part of the 
inhabitants of the town against it, and praying its repeal. 
In the signatures to this petition which have been pre- 
served there are one hundred and twenty names, more 
than half of which are French, many being those of 
the Huguenot families who were to be most conspicu- 
ous in the colony, — Henry Peronneau, John Simmons, 
Peter Manigault, John Laurens, Solomon Legare, Jean 
Bonnetheau, Joel Poinsett, Isaac Mazyck, and others. 
There are a few names of prominent English colonists, 
as Samuel Everleigh, one of the Council, Francis Holmes, 
John Grimball, and others; but besides these there are 
none of the names which we should expect to see to a peti- 
tion of such consequence if the measure was an unpopular 
one.^ And this Governor Nicholson was quick to point out. 

His Excellency was incensed at the opposition, and flew 
into one of the passions for which he had been noted in 
his younger days. He sent a message to the Assembly, 
contemptuously alluding to the signers of the petition as 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 265, 266. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 43 

strangers, sailors, convicts, and keepers of punch-houses. 
He pointed out that the opposition came from the country 
and not from the townspeople. But this could only have 
been true in part. The Huguenots whom we have men- 
tioned were citizens of the town. Mr. Everleigh occupied 
too high a position to be put down by the ill temper of 
the Governor. He insisted that the townspeople had 
been surprised into the law, and in behalf of Eleazar 
Allen and himself and other inhabitants he had a memo- 
rial presented to the Lords Commissioners of Trade by 
Mr. Richard Shelton, who having been heard for the 
memorialists, and Mr. Yonge, agent of Carolina, against 
it, the Lords of Trade recommended to the Lords Jus- 
tices that the act should be repealed, which was ordered 
by their Lordships on the 27th of June, 1723.1 

By his instructions Governor Nicholson was to erect no 
new Courts of Judicature nor to displace any judge with- 
out good cause. But this was not construed to prevent a 
reorganization of the Court of Chancery, nor the provid- 
ing for County and Precinct courts of limited jurisdiction. 

The Governor and a majority of the Council were em- 
powered to hold a Court of Chancery, writs and process 
of which should be issued by the Register. The issuing 
of injunctions Avas regulated. The court was always to 
be open for the dispatch of matters relating to the for- 
warding and finishing of causes ; but special court days 
were appointed for their full and solemn hearing. A list 
of all causes to be heard was to be posted at the public 
watch-house. As the Chief Justice was ex officio a mem- 
ber of the Council, to avoid the scandal of a recurrence of 
his sitting in Chancery to hear injunctions against him- 
self as a law judge the act provided that no justice or 
judge of any court within the province should have a 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 264, 266 ; Trott's Laws, 397. 



44 HlSTOllY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

vote in the Court of Chancery in cases pending before him 
at law. Appeals from judgments in this court to his 
Majesty in Privy Council were allowed and regulated.^ 

The preamble to the act establishing County and Pre- 
cincts courts which was passed the 21st of September, 1721, 
recited the great charge and burden to tlie inhabitants 
of the province to be obliged to repair from all parts of 
the country to one General Court at Charlestown for the 
trial of all causes whether civil or criminal. Among the 
chief causes of complaint against the Proprietary govern- 
ment was its insistence through the influence of Trott 
and Rhett upon holding all elections and all courts in 
Charlestown. To vote or to obtain justice the colonists, 
no matter where living, had to come to town. The evil 
in regard to elections had been remedied at the cost of 
the colony to the Proprietors. The other evil was not 
gotten rid of during the Royal government. The emolu- 
ments of the offices of provost marshal and clerk seized 
upon by the Crown were held as greedily as under the 
Proprietors. This influence at London we shall see 
baffling all attempts to bring justice to the doors of the 
people in Carolina. The attempt was made, however, 
under Nicholson, in some degree at least, to remedy the 
evil. The act provided that a Court of Pleas, Assize, and 
goal delivery should be established in Berkeley County 
at the place called Wassamasaw in the parish of St. 
James, Goose Creek. To this precinct St. George's and 
St. James's parishes were annexed ; another was to be 
established at a place called Echaw in the parish of St. 
James, Santee, in Craven County, at which court all the 
inhabitants of Craven County should be attendant ; 
another at Willton in Colleton County ; another at 
Beaufort Town in Granville County ; and another to be 

1 Stattites of So. Ca., vol. VII, 163. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 46 

called the Wando Precinct at which the parishes of St. 
Thomas and St. Dennis and Christ Church should be 
attendant. These courts were to be held by five magis- 
trates to be appointed by the Governor, the first named 
to be president. They were to meet quarterly and to sit 
three days. Their jurisdiction was not to extend to life 
or limb in criminal cases ; nor to exceed XlOO sterling 
in civil causes. General jurisdiction was still restricted 
to the court in Charlestown to which appeals lay from 
these Precinct Courts. There were no sheriffs to draw 
juries for these courts, and recurrence was had to the 
military organization for this purpose. The militia cap- 
tains of companies in the several j)arishes were to furnish 
lists of their men from which jurors were to be drawn. 
These courts were to have jurisdiction to license taverns 
and public houses, and to suppress them if they enter- 
tained servants, negroes, drunkards, lewd and disorderly 
persons, or if liquor was sold in them on Sunday or during 
divine worship. They were empowered to sue for legacies, 
gifts, and donations to free schools ; to administer estates 
of persons dying intestate ; to take orders concerning 
orphans' estates, and to appoint guardians. They were 
to inspect the accounts of the church wardens and to see 
that the poor were sufficiently provided for by them. 
In these courts any person might plead his own cause. ^ 
The courts established by this act went into general 
operation ; but as they were held by persons not trained 
to the legal profession, and their jurisdiction was so cir- 
cumscribed, the tendency still was for the General Court 
in Charlestown to absorb all business. ^ 

This act was soon followed by another of the 23d of 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 166. 

^Administration of Justice in So. Ca. (H. A. M. Smith) ; Tear Book 
City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1885, 322. 



4G history Oi' SOtJTH CAROLINA 

February, 1722, further regulating the proceedings of these 
courts and empowering tliem to purchase lands and to build 
court-houses, and for this purpose to assess and levy a 
charge. No court-houses were, however, built by them. 
They were also empowered to purchase land and to build 
a free-school house thereon in each precinct, and to 
nominate and appoint the schoolmasters. The act went 
on to recite and provide that as the stipend allowed to 
schoolmasters was too small, to the intent that good and 
able schoolmasters might be encouraged to come and 
settle in the precincts, schoolmasters qualified according 
to his Majesty's instructions and recommended by the 
Governor and Council, to be skilled in the Latin tongue, 
and approved by the justices of the court, and actually 
living and residing within the limits of the count}' and 
precinct should receive yearly from the Treasurer each 
<£25 to be levied by the justices of the courts who were 
given the same powers as the Commissioners of the free 
school in Charlestown. Each schoolmaster was to teach 
ten poor children gratis yearly if sent by the justices. 
To the two free schools established under the Proprie- 
tary government,^ one in Charlestown, and one in Goose 
Creek, others were now provided at Wassamasaw, Echaw, 
Willton, Beaufort, and Wando. 

Another important measure of Governor Nicholson's 
administration was the revision of the slave code. The 
act of 1722 was a codification of all previous enactments 
upon the subject. ^ Hildreth, the historian, commenting 
upon the enactment of 1712 in Pennsylvania and Massa- 
chusetts, imposing prohibitory duties upon the importation 
of Indian and negro slaves, observes,^ " cotemporaneously 

1 See Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 510, 511, 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, .371. 

3 Hildreth's Hist, of U. S. (1840), vol. II, 271. 



trNDER THfi KOYAL GOVERNMENT 47 

with these prohibitory acts of Pennsylvania and Massa- 
chusetts, the first extant slave law of South Carolina was 
enacted and became the basis of the existing slave code of 
that State." He gives the preamble of the act, which 
is as follows : — 

" Whereas, the plantations and estates of this Province cannot be 
well and sufficiently managed and brought into use without the labor 
and service of negroes and other slaves ; and for as much as the said 
negroes and other slaves brought unto the people of this Province for 
that purpose are of barbarous, wild, savage natures and such as to 
render them wholly unqualified to be governed by the laws, customs, 
and practices of this province, but that it is absolutely necessary that 
such other constitutions, laws, and orders should in this Province be 
made and enacted for the good regulating and ordering of them as 
may restrain the disorders, rapines, and iidiumanity to which they are 
naturally prone and inclined, and may also tend to the safety and 
security of the people of this Province and their estates, it therefore 
enacts," etc. 

Then follows an analysis of the act in which the objec- 
tionable features are set forth, — " South Carolina it thus 
appears," continues the historian, " assumed at the begin- 
ning the same bad preeminence on the subject of slave 
legislation which it still (1840) maintains." The fact is 
that this preamble, as well as many of the provisions of 
the act thus criticised, were taken verbatim from the 
Barbadian statute of 1688, and were not declarations and 
measures entitling South Carolina to preeminence eitlier 
for good or evil over other slave-holding communities. 
The act of 1712 was not " the first extant slave law " of 
tlie province, as the historian alleges, nor was it the basis 
of the slave code of the State which existed in 1740. The 
basis of that code was the code brought over with the first 
colonists from Barbadoes,^ and formulated upon the Barba- 
dian statute of 1688 as above. Had the author but turned 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 234, 357-360, 362, 363. 



48 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the next page of the volume from which he extracted the 
provisions of the Law he so condemned, he would have 
found enactments of but two years after — i.e. 1714 in 
the same direction as those of the two northern provinces 
which he was commending. The act of 1714 reciting the 
dangerous increase of the number of negroes in propor- 
tion to the whites imposed a duty of X2 current money 
upon every negro over twelve years of age imported from 
Africa.^ And had he further searched he would have 
found the effort to check the importation of negroes con- 
tinued by various enactments, until prohibited by the 
Royal government at the instance of London merchants. 
In 1716 provision had been made requiring every planter 
to have one white servant for every ten negro slaves ; ^ 
and by another act a duty of X3 per head was laid upon 
all negroes imported from Africa and ,£30 per head upon 
all negroes imported from any of the colonies.^ In 1719 
the duty upon those imported from Africa was increased 
to £1Q per head, and that of <£30 per head continued 
upon those from the other colonies.^ In 1721 the same 
duties were imposed.^ In 1722 the duty upon negroes 
imported from Africa was the same as in the previous 
year, — £10 per head, — but the duty upon those brought 
from other parts of America was increased to X50 j^er 
head.^ The reason given for this discrimination is that 
the negroes imported from the other colonies were either 
transported thence by courts of justice or sent off by pri- 
vate persons for their ill behavior.'' 

There is a significant omission in the act now passed. 
In the Fundamental Constitutions of Locke of 1669, two 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 3G7. ^ /^/^.^ jeo, 161. 

2 Ibid., vol. II, 648. ^ jua,, 194, 195. 
8/Md., 651. ''Jbid., 161. 

* Ibid., vol. Ill, 56. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 49 

years before the first negro slave was brought into the 
colony, it had been provided that '-'- every freeman of Caro- 
lina shall have absolute poiver and authority over his negro 
slaves, of ivhat opinion or reliyioji so ever." As elsewhere 
observed, the significance of this provision was not in the 
recognition of slavery as an institution in the province, — 
that was assumed, — nor yet in the absolute power it pro- 
posed to give to the freeman over his slave, great as that 
was, but in the last words wherein it was intended to 
provide against the effect of the possible conversion and 
baptism of the negroes.^ Lord Hardwicke has left the ex- 
planation of this provision. In delivering the opinion in 
a case before him ^ he says : " There was once a doubt 
whether if they (negro slaves) were christened they would 
not become free by that act, and there were precautions 
taken in the colonies to prevent their being baptized till 
the opinion of Lord Talbot and myself, then Attorney 
General and Solicitor General, was taken on that point. 
We were both of opinion that it did not alter their state." 
Li South Carolina there had been no such provision to 
prevent the baptism of negroes. On the contrary, open 
and public effort, however inadequate, was made for their 
conversion. The Rev. Samuel Thomas, the first mis- 
sionary sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, who ministered at Goose Creek, reported that he 
had taken much pains in instructing negroes, and had 
taught twenty-three of them to read. The Rev. Mr. Le 
Jau, who succeeded him, wrote that the parents and 
masters were inclined with much good will to have their 
children and servants taught the Christian religion. He 
instructed and baptized many negroes and Indian slaves. 
The Rev. Mr. Taylor, missionary in St. Andrew's, wrote 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), supra. 
- Pearne v. Lisle, Ambler's Reports (1749), 77. 

VOL. II E 



50 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to the Societ}' (1713) that Mrs. Haig and Mrs. Edwards 
had taken extraordinary pains to instruct a considerable 
number of negroes in the principles of the Christian 
religion, and to reclaim and reform them ; that upon 
examination fourteen of these had so satisfactorily ex- 
plained the chief articles of religion and rehearsed the 
Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer 
that he had thought it his duty to baptize them on the 
Lord's day. The Rev. Mr. Varnod reported that he had 
fifty communicants, of whom seventeen were negroes, and 
had baptized several grown persons, besides children and 
negroes belonging to Mr. Alexander Skene ; that in 1733 
out of thirty-one communicants in his parish nineteen 
were negroes. Mr. John Morris of St. Bartholomew's, 
Lady Moore, Captain David Davis, Mrs. Sarah Baker, and 
several others of Goose Creek, Landgrave Joseph Morton 
and his wife of St. Paul's, Mr. and Mrs. Skene, Mrs. 
Haig, and Mrs. Edwards are recorded as most zealous in 
encouraging the instruction of their slaves as early as 
1711.1 

But while encouraging the religious education and con- 
version of the negroes and allowing it oi)enly to be car- 
ried on, the legislature had, in the act of 1712, made this 
express provision to guard against the danger which Lord 
Hardwicke states was supposed to exist, and which the 
Fundamental Constitution had endeavored to avoid. The 
act provided : ^ — 

" XXXIV. Since charity and the christian religion which we profess 
obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and that religion may 
not be made a pretence to alter any man's projjerty and right, and 

1 Humphreys' Hist. Account of Sac. for the Pro. of Gospel, 82-84, 
112 ; Digest of S. P. G. Becords (1701, 1892), 15, 16, 115; Dalcho's Ch. 
Hist., 346,347; Slavery in So. C'a. 1670-1770; Am. Hist. Ass., 1896 
(McCrady), 661, 662. 2 Stattites of So. Ca., vol. VII, 352. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 51 

that no person may neglect to baptize their negroes or slaves or suffer 
them to be baptized for fear that thereby they should be manumitted 
and set free : Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid That 
it shall be and is hereby declared lawful for any negro or Indian slave, 
or any other slave or slaves whatsoever to receive and pi'ofess the 
christian faith and be thereinto baptized ; but that notwithstanding 
such slave or slaves shall receive and profess the christian religion 
and be baptized, he or thej^ shall not thereby be manumitted or set 
free, or his or their owner, master or mistress lose his or their civil 
right, property, and authority over such slave or slaves, but that the 
said slave or slaves with respect to his servitude shall remain and con- 
tinue in the same state and condition that he or they was in before 
the making of the act." 

Sir Francis Nicholson and his government had probably 
heard of the opinion of the law officers of the Crown 
to which Lord Hargrave referred in the case of Pearne 
V. Lisle, and did not consider it necessary, therefore, to 
reenact this clause, and it was omitted. But the doubt 
was not yet wholly removed, so the Church was appealed 
to and Dr. Gibson, the Bishop of London, in a pastoral 
letter on the 19th of May, 1727, addressed to the masters 
and families in the English plantations abroad exhorting 
them to encourage and promote the instruction of their 
negroes in the Christian faith, thus discussed the subject 
in its religious aspect. 

11. But it is further pleaded that the instruction of heathens in 
the Christian Faith is in order to their Baptism, and that not only the 
time to be allowed for instructing them would be an Abatement from 
the Profits of their Labor, but also that the Baptizing them when in- 
structed would destroy both the Property which the Masters have in 
them as Slaves bought with their money and the Right of selling them 
again at pleasure, and the making of them Christians only makes 
them less diligent and more ungovernable. 

To which it may be very truly replied that Christianity and the 
embracing of the Gospel does not make the least Alteration in Civil 
Property or in any of the Duties which belong to Civil Relations, 
but in all these Respects it continues Persons just in the same State 



52 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

as it found them. The Freedom which Christianity gives is a 
Freedom from the Bondage of Sin and Satan, and from the Domin- 
ions of Men's Lusts, and Passions, and inordinate Desires ; but as to 
tlieir outward Condition whatever that was before, whether bond or 
free, their being baptized and becoming Christians makes no manner 
of cliange in it. As St. Paul has expressly told us 1 Corinthians vii. 
20, where he is speaking directly to the very point " Let every man 
abide in the same calling wherein he was called," and at the 24th verse, 
" Let every m.an tvherein he is called therein abide with God." ^ 

The anxieties of the London merchants having been 
thus allayed and the legal doubts satisfied, the importa- 
tion of negroes into the colonies was continued with 
renewed vigor. 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 108, 109. 



CHAPTER IV 
1722-24 

War, it will be recollected, was subsisting between 
England and Spain at the time of the overthrow of the 
Proprietors' government, and the province of South Caro- 
lina had only been saved from invasion by the repulse of 
the Spanish fleet at Providence and its dispersion by a 
storm soon after. Before Governor Nicholson left Eng- 
land a suspension of hostilities between England and 
Spain had been published, and by the treaty of peace, 
which afterward took place, it was stipulated and agreed 
that all subjects and Indians within their respective juris- 
dictions should cease from acts of hostility. Orders were 
sent to the Governor of Florida to forbear molesting the 
Carolinians, and the British Governor had also instructions 
to cultivate the friendship of the Spanish subjects and 
Indians of Florida.^ The observance of these instructions 
was, however, nothing more than a hollow truce — some 
communications passed between the two governors touch- 
ing the restitution of vessels, Indians, negro slaves, and 
other effects taken by the Spaniards after the cessation of 
hostilities, and Governor Nicholson writes to the Governor 
of St. Augustine proposing the establishment of a free trade 
between their respective governments. ^ But the building 
of the fort on the Altamaha by Colonel Barnwell — called 
Fort King George — gave new offence, and the Spanish 
ambassador in England complained of it.^ The Spanish 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 297. 

2 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 263. » Ibid., 278. 

53 



54 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

government complained also of some hostilities committed 
against the inhabitants of Florida by Indians under the 
protection of his Britannic Majesty. Governor Nicholson 
complains to the Governor of Florida of the treatment of 
Captain Watson sent by him in a public capacity to make 
demand for runaway slaves, and contrasts his own treat- 
ment of the Spanish governed people " who are subsisted 
at the public charge, and have every day two bottles of 
Madeira." But at the same time he writes to Colonel 
Barnwell not to permit any of them to go or return by 
Fort King George ; that he has written to his Excellency, 
the Spanish Governor, to say that for the future he will 
receive no message but what comes directly over the bar 
to Charles Town.^ 

The intermission of actual warfare, however, permitted 
Governor Nicholson to turn his attention to a settlement 
of the frontiers of the province. His large colonial ex- 
perience induced him to believe that most of the troubles 
from Indians had been occasioned by Europeans taking 
possession of lands claimed by them without the permis- 
sion or consent of the Indians. He was no stranger to 
the manners of these people, and with great zeal and 
spirit applied himself to the regulation of Indian affairs 
and to the making of treaties of friendship and alliance 
with the different tribes around the settlements. With 
these views he sent a message to the Cherokees — the 
most powerful nation, computed at the time to consist of 
no less than six thousand bowmen — that he had presents 
to make to them, and would meet them at the borders of 
their territories to hold a general congress to treat of 
mutual friendship and commerce. The Indians, pleased 
at being treated Avith this consideration, as a free and 
respectable people, accepted the invitation, and imme- 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 280. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 55 

diately the chiefs of thirty-seven different towns set out 
to meet him. 

At this congress the Governor, having made the Indians 
several presents, and smoked the pipe of peace with them, 
marked the boundaries of the lands between them and the 
English settlers. He regulated weights and measures, 
that justice might be done them in the way of traffic. He 
appointed an agent to superintend their affairs ; and, to 
unite them under a common head, proposed to nominate 
one warrior as Commander-in-chief of the whole nation, 
before whom all complaints were to be laid, and who was 
to inform the Governor of every injury done them. With 
the consent of all present Wrosetasatow was declared chief 
warrior of the Cherokee nation, with power to punish all 
guilty of depredation and murders, and to obtain satisfac- 
tion for every injury done to Indians from tlie British 
settlers. The Indians returned to their towns highly 
pleased with their generous brother and new ally. The 
Governor then proceeded to conclude likewise a treaty of 
commerce and peace with the Creeks, who were also at 
that time a numerous and formidable nation. He likewise 
appointed an agent to reside among them whose business 
was to regulate their affairs in a friendly and equitable 
manner, and fixed the Savannah River as the boundary of 
their hunting lands, beyond which no settlements were to 
extend.^ 

Colonel William Rhett, it will be remembered, had made 
his peace with the temporary government under James 
Moore, and had been appointed Overseer of the Repairs 
and Fortifications of Charles Town, while retaining the 
position not only of the Comptroller of the King's Customs, 
but that also of the Proprietors' Receiver General. ^ It is not 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 297, 208. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 660. 



56 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to be supposed that three such tiery men as Rhett, Moore, 
and Nicholson could get along quietly, and we soon find 
them at war. Before Governor Nicholson's arrival Moore 
and Rhett had quarrelled. Moore writes to Boone, on the 
19th of January, 1721, as we have seen, of the great joy of 
the province at the news of his Excellency's — Governor 
Nicholson's — coming, and the desire that that enemy 
"to his country and detestable reviler of mankind," 
Colonel Rhett, might be removed from his office of Sur- 
veyor and Comptroller of his Majesty's Customs. He and 
his Council were of opinion that most of the differences 
between the I^ords Proprietors and" the inhabitants of 
South Carolina had been occasioned by the misrepresenta- 
tion of Colonel Rhett and his brother-in-laAv, Judge Trott.^ 
One of the first measures of Governor Nicholson's was the 
appointment of Benjamin de la Consiliere, Esq., Receiver 
and Treasurer of the province. As was to have been 
expected there was at once a difference over the settlement 
of the accounts between the Proprietors and his Majesty. ^ 
In October Governor Nicholson writes to Charles de la 
Fay, Secretary to the Lords Justices, touching Rhett, whom 
he terras " a haughty, proud, insolent fellow and a cheating 
"scoundrel," accuses him of every wicked and malicious 
proceeding, and giving out — and here no doubt was the 
chief cause of offence — that he, Rhett, was to be Governor, 
and he, Nicholson, to be turned out. Again in Decem- 
ber he complains of the two Rhetts — father and son — 
and thinks Rhett senior should be prosecuted. ^ But 
Colonel Rhett was not to survive to carry on the warfare. 
His brilliant, if haughty, career was about to end. Gov- 
ernor Nicholson writes to Lord Carteret, Januarj^ 14, 
1722-23, that " old Rhett is dead of apoplexy," and requests 
somebody to be sent over to succeed him, as he is afraid 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 231. 2 j^^,^ 209. » Ibid., 233. 



UNDEU THE KOYAL GUVEKNMENT 57 

"there ai'e not many persons here qualified"; thinks the 
accounts should be fully examined, and that " it would have 
been for his Lordship's interest had he died some years 
ago, and not been linked to Mr. Trott and his family. "^ 
James Moore soon followed Rhett. He died the 17th of 
P'ebruary following. ^ 

A singular and deplorable instance of religious fanati- 
cism and delusion occurred at this time.^ The family of 
Dutartres, consisting of four sons and four daughters, 
were descendants of French refugees who came into Caro- 
lina after the Edict of Nantes. They were poor but 
res23ectable people, who lived in Orange-quarter, esteemed 
by trlieir neighbors persons of blameless and irreproachable 
lives. Unfortunately for their peace a strolling Moravian 
preacher, happening to come into that neighborhood, in- 
sinuated himself into the family and, partly by conversa- 
tion and partly by the writings of Jacob Behman, or, more 
correctly, Boehme, a Germau mystical writer of a century 
before, which he put into their hands, filled their heads 
with wild and fantastic ideas. They soon withdrcAV them- 
selves from public worship and from all conversation with 
the world around them. They imagined they were the 
only people on earth who had the knowledge of the true 
God, and believed that he vouchsafed to instruct them by 
immediate impulses of his Spirit or by signs and tokens 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 232, 233. In his Hist, of So. Ca. 
under Prop. Gov., the author of this work, in a note to page 690, states 
that Colonel Rhett died in 1721. In that statement he was misled by the 
authority quoted. Colonel Rhett died, as stated in the text here, in 
January, 1722-23. 

2 Ibid., 279. 

8 The story of this intere.sting episode was given by the Rev. Alexander 
Garden, Commissary of the Bishop of London in South Carolina, and 
will be found at length in Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 302, and in 
Howe's Hist, of the Presbyterian Church, 194. 



58 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

from heaven. At length it came to open visions and 
revelations. God raised up a prophet among them like 
unto Moses, to whom he taught them to hearken. This 
prophet was Peter Rombert, who had married the eldest 
daughter of the family when a widow. To this person it 
was revealed in the plainest manner that the wickedness 
of man was again so great in the world that, as in the 
days of Noah, God was determined to destroy all men from 
the face of it except one family, whom he would save from 
which to raise up a godly seed upon earth. This revela- 
tion Peter Rombert was sure of, and felt it as plain as the 
wind blowing on his body, and the rest of the family, with 
equal confidence and presumption, joined in his belief. 

Alas ! the usual course of such prophets was soon fol- 
lowed. In a few days God was pleased to reveal himself 
a second time, saying to the prophet, "Put away the 
woman whom thou hast for thy wife, and when I have 
destroyed this wicked generation I will raise up her first 
husband from the dead, and they shall be man and wife 
as before ; and go thou and take to thy wife her youngest 
sister, who is a virgin; so shall the chosen family be re- 
stored entire and the holy seed preserved pure and unde- 
filed. " At first the father was staggered at so extraordinary 
a command from heaven, but the prophet assured him that 
God would give him a sign, which accordingly happened, 
upon which the old man took his youngest daughter by 
the hand and gave her to the prophet immediately for his 
wife. 

The family living notoriously in this wicked and un- 
lawful condition, after long forbearance Captain Peter 
Simons, a worthy magistrate and the officer of the militia 
in that quarter, conceived it his duty to interfere and 
issue his warrant for the arrest of the prophet and Judith 
Dutartre, with whom he was thus living in open violation 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 59 

of the law. The constable having received his warrants, 
and being apprehensive of resistance, prevailed upon two 
or three of his neighbors to accompany him. The family, 
observing the constable coming, and apprised of his errand, 
consulted their prophet, who told them that God com- 
manded tliem to arm and defend themselves against per- 
secution of ungodly men, assuring them that no weapon 
used against them should prosper. The family resisted, 
lired upon the constables, and drove them out of their 
plantation. Upon this Captain Simons gathered a party 
of his militia to protect the constable in the execution of 
his office. As the posse approached their house, the de- 
luded family shut themselves in, and firing upon the party, 
Captain Simons fell dead on the spot, and several of his 
party were wounded. The militia returned the tire, killed 
one woman within the house, and, finally entering, took 
the rest, six in number, prisoners and carried them to 
Charlestown. 

At the Court of General Sessions held in September, 
1724, three of these deluded people were brought to trial, 
found guilty, and condemned. During their trial they 
appeared altogether unconcerned and secure, affirming that 
God was on their side, and therefore they feared not what 
man could do unto them. They freely told the miserable 
story in open court in all its circumstances and aggrava- 
tions, with good countenances, asserting their authority 
from God in their vindication. They resented Mr. Gar- 
den's offer of spiritual counsel, and to his efforts to arouse 
them to a sense of their crimes their response was : Answer 
him not a word; who is he that should presume to teach 
them who had the spirit of God speaking inwardly to their 
souls ? In all that they had done they had obeyed the 
voice of God and were now to suffer martyrdom for liis 
religion. God assured them that he would either work a 



60 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

(leliveiance for tliem or raise them up the third day. The 
three condemned continued to assert their belief in these 
things until the moment they expired. Judith, because 
of her condition, was not tried; the two sons, David and 
John Dutartre, about eighteen and twenty years of age, 
having been also tried and condemned, continued sullen 
and reserved, expecting to see those who were executed 
rise from the dead; but, disappointed in this, they at last 
seemed to become sensible of their error, and were both 
pardoned. Yet not long afterward, one of them murdered 
an innocent person without either provocation or previous 
quarrel, alleging again as his motive the command of God. 
He was brought again to trial, condemned, and executed. 
Under Mr. Garden's counsel he expressed himself peni- 
tent, and died in the humble hope of mercy. 

At this time the number of white inhabitants, including 
men, women, and children, was computed to amount to 
fourteen thousand, an increase in fifty-four years since the 
arrival of the first colonists, very small and inconsiderable, 
owing no doubt to the unhealthiness of the climate, which 
was not yet understood, and to the discouragements and 
trouble which prevailed during the Proprietary govern- 
ment. The province now furnished the inhabitants with 
provisions in abundance, and exported what it could spare 
to the West Indies. The white inhabitants lived frugally, 
as luxury had not yet crept in among them, and, except for 
the use of a little rum and sugar, tea and coffee, were con- 
tented with what their plantations afforded. 

In 1724, 439 slaves and British goods and manufactures 
of different kinds to the amount of between X50,000 and 
<£60,000 sterling were imported into the province. In 
exchange for these slaves and commodities 18,000 barrels 
of rice and 52,000 barrels of pitch, tar, and turpentine, 
together with deerskins, furs, and raw silk, were exported 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 61 

to England. The Carolinians also traded to the West 
Indies, and several small shij^s and sloops were employed 
in carrying their provisions, lumber, staves, and naval 
stores, which they bartered for sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, 
cotton, and Spanish gold and coin. To New England, 
New York, and Pennsylvania they sent some rice, hides, 
deerskins, tar, and pitch, which they exchanged for flour, 
salt fish, fruit, beer, and cider. ^ 

Among other traders at this time Othneal Beale com- 
manded a ship in the Carolina trade, and while sailing 
from Charlestown to London he was taken by an Algerine 
Rover, who intended to carry him into Barbary, and for 
this purpose took the English sailors on board his own 
vessel and manned Captain Beale 's ship with Algerines, 
giving them orders to follow him to the Mediterranean 
Sea. Soon after, a storm arising at night separated the 
two ships, and Captain Beale, being the only person on 
board the pirate's vessel that understood navigation, 
availed himself of the opportunity, and instead of sailing 
for Africa steered the Algerine vessel directly for Eng- 
land and brought her safely in the Thames. This bold 
adventure procured the captain an introduction to the 
King and a handsome present from his Majesty. It 
marked him a man of address and courage in Carolina, 
where he afterward took up his residence and became one 
of the most prominent and useful citizens. For many 
years he was in command of the militia of the town, and 
Avas made a member of his Majesty's Council and became 
President of it. He lived to the ripe old age of eighty- 
two,2 surviving the Royal government which Governor 
Nicholson was now establishing. 

Governor Nicholson had no easy time. His government 
was purely provisional. The Proprietors had not yet sur- 

1 Hewatt's Hisl. of So. Ca., vol. I, 310. '^ Ibid., 311. 



62 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rendered their charter, nor did they intend to do so without 
a struggle. They were pressing his Majesty for the resto- 
ration of their government, or at least the appointment of a 
Governor of their choice, and nominated for that position 
Colonel Samuel Horsey, nor did the Royal government 
resent their doing so. Sir Francis was tired and wished 
to be released and to return home. In June, 1724, he 
writes to the Board of Trade ^ that the Assembly is ended, 
and complains that the Commons had behaved themselves 
strangely and arbitrarily, if not illegally, the spirit of 
commonivealth principles increases daily^ influenced, as he 
believes, by the New Englanders ; the natives of this con- 
tinent, he observes, are variable in their politics, which he 
attributes to the uncertainty of the weather; that great 
industry was used, insinuating to the people the proba- 
bility of the Lords Proprietors resuming the government; 
the late Mr. Rhett and Mr. Trott are mentioned as the 
individuals who pursued this underhand course ; the said 
Trott, the present Mr. Rhett, Mr. Roger Moore, and 
Eleazar Allen (who married two of old Rhett's daughters) 
are supposed now to carry on the same affair; Joseph 
Blake, one of the Proprietors, had informed him the 
Lords Proprietors intended to bring the affair of the gov- 
ernment to an issue. 

It will be recollected that under the Proprietary govern- 
ment the Commons had exercised the most arbitrary power 
of arrest, each party in turn arresting the leader of the 
other on some charge of contempt. Thus Landgrave 
Thomas Smith, in 1704, was arrested for libel because of 
disrespectful expressions in a private letter in regard to 
the House; 2 and Colonel Risbee, in 1706, for vilifying 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 283. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. 7ind<n- Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 413, 415. This was 
the second Landirrave of tliat, name. 



UNDEE THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 63 

the Assembly while over his bottle of wine in a tavern. ^ 
The Commons under the Royal government were equally 
assertive of the right, and even still more arbitrary in its 
exercise. Holding itself as representing the power of the 
people, since its success in overthrowing the Proprietary 
rule, it was still more inclined to assert for itself the 
omnipotence of a parliament. The Royal government 
was not yet firmly established when the Commons began 
a struggle for the maintenance of the power of arbitrary 
imprisonment — a struggle, however, in which it was 
fortunate for the liberty of the people that so firm and 
able a judge as Robert Wright, the first Chief Justice 
under the Royal government, was on the bench to meet 
and resist. 

The currency was in a very unsatisfactory condition. 
Many of the bills in circulation were, it was alleged, 
counterfeit, and many others were too worn for use. To 
remedy this an act was passed in 1722 authorizing the 
reprinting of the genuine bills outstanding, and, because 
— said the act — by the great floods many of the inhabit- 
ants had lost their crops and were unable to pay their 
taxes, an additional sum of £40,000 was allowed to be 
issued, 2 In the reissue no difference was made between 
the bills merely reprinted and the additional issue, nor 
was it provided when and how they were to be paid. 
The merchants of Charlestown complained to the Gov- 
ernor, Council, and Assembly against these bills. They 
charged that the statement of the loss of the people by 
floods, which the act recited as the reason for its passage, 
was untrue, and that the Assembly had broken faith in 
adding to the bills of credit. Upon this the Assembly 
took great offence, resolved tliat they had not broken the 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 458. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 188. 



64 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

jDublic faith; they voted the merchants' memorial false, 
and in a most arbitrary manner ordered them, twenty-eight 
in number, into custody, that the dignity and privileges 
of the Commons might be maintained. The merchants 
applied to the Governor for protection, and that they 
might be heard against the proposed bills. The Council, 
who were in sympathy with the merchants, and who had 
only assented to the act because the Assembly would not 
otherwise provide the means of carrying on the govern- 
ment, ordered that the merchants should be heard, but did 
not care to question the privileges of the Commons by 
releasing them from arrest and from the custody of the 
messenger of that body. The Assembly, nevertheless, 
resented what they regarded as an interference with their 
privileges by the Council, and complained to the Governor, 
insisting upon their right to punish the merchants for 
criticising their conduct and petitioning against their 
action. The Governor countenanced the Assembly and 
encouraged the stamping of more bills ; the merchants 
continued in custody, and their release was made as ex- 
pensive as possible; the charges of their imprisonment 
cost them £300 sterling. 

The act adding X40,000 to the currency was passed, 
and in less than a year exchange rose 700 per cent; the 
merchants lost again 30 per cent on all their outstanding 
debts. But if the merchants in Charlestown were power- 
less, those in England, nearer the throne, possessed in- 
fluence to be heard. When the matter reached London, 
the Lords Justices, through the influence of the merchants 
there trading with Carolina, disapproved and disallowed 
the act, and instructed Governor Nicholson that he should 
take speedy means for sinking and discharging these bills. ^ 

1 Representation of Mr. Stephen Godin, merchant of London, with 
approval of the members of council, Arthur iNliddleton, Kalph Izard, 



UNDEE, THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 66 

Under his instructions upon the subject bills amounting 
to £55,000 were to be paid into the treasury for duties 
only, and when so received were not to be reissued, but 
cancelled; £53,000 outstanding were allowed to remain 
current until provision could be made for calling them in. 
An act was passed on the 15th of February, 1728-2-i, for 
carrying out these directions of the Royal government 
and providing that these old outstanding bills should be 
changed for new bills within eight months from the pass- 
ing of the act, and not to be thereafter current.^ In Sep- 
tember, 1724, Governor Nicholson accordingly issued his 
proclamation for changing the old paper credits for new.^ 
Sir Francis Nicholson, it was charged by the Council, 
was really in sympathy with the people and the Assembly 
as agfainst both the merchants in Carolina and the mer- 
chants in London. Between them all he had a hard time. 
The merchants in London went so far as to petition the 
King for his removal, f pon Avhich he writes that he is 
not surprised, but will not trouble their Lordships with 
any particular defence, as he hopes to make it in person. ^ 
He had been applying for leave to return to England for 
some time. Sir Francis was not, however, without friends 
in the community. The grand jury for the province inter- 
vene and pray the King to suspend the Royal consideration 
of the merchants' petition until the province can be heard."* 

William Bull, Alexander Skene, James Kinloch. Charles Hart. Benjamin 
Schenkingh, and Benjamin de la Consiliere. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 300, 302. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. III. 219. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 284. 3 jt;,-^.. 286. 

* Pjid. The autographs to this petition of the Grand Jury are John 
Raven, William Bettinsrer (Bellinger?), Francis Ladson, Peter Villepon- 
toux. Will Smith. Samuel West, Noah Serre, Daniel Huger (foreman), 
Elisha Prioleau, Samuel Eveleigh. William Wallace, Richard Smith, 
Arthur Hall. .John Croft, Peter Catteli; Anth. Bonneau, John Cawood, 
Thomas Elliott. Henry Toomer. 

VOL. II — F 



66 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In December the Governor is in good spirits in view of 
his departure. He is expecting, he writes to the Board 
of Trade, the arrival of about fifteen sail of ships, which 
will be sufficient to carry away the rice and pitch, and 
that trade increases. In January he writes again that 
they have had an extraordinary good winter, and sends a 
list of ships and vessels, and expects several more. He 
sends the Collector's accounts and lists, ^ by which their 
Lordships will see the thriving state of trade, which he 
hopes will be in part an answer to the London merchants. 
He sends petitions from the county courts of St. Helena, 
Granville County, and the Wando precinct against the 
petition of the London merchants. He gives reasons why 
he must postpone his visit to Great Britain until the 
beginning of May.^ 

Governor Nicholson, says Hewatt, though bred a soldier, 
and profane, passionate, and headstrong himself, was not 
insensible to the great advantage of religion to society, 
and contributed not a little to its interests in Carolina, 
both by his public influence and private generosity. The 
number of inhabitants increasing in each parish it was 
found necessary to enlarge several churches for their ac- 
commodation. The inhabitants of St. Paul's Parish, many 
of whom had their houses burnt, and suffered otherwise 
great losses in the Yamassee war, were obliged to apply to 
the public for assistance. The parish of St. George was 
separated and taken out of that of St. Andrews by an act 
of Assembly, and a new church was built at the village of 
Dorchester by public allowance and private contributions. 
The inhabitants of Winyaw had been without the benefit 
of public worship, and claimed particular attention. To 

1 The Collector of his Majesty's Customs was Thomas Gadsden. This 
is the first mention of a name destined to be forever famous in the history 
of South Carolina. '^ Gull. Hist. Soc. of Sti. C'd., vol. I, 288. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 67 

erect a cliurch in this quarter the Governor proposed a 
private subscription and set the example by largely con- 
tributing to it. He made application to the Society in 
England for Propagating the Gospel, and they supplied 
the province with clergymen. Animated by the example 
and assisted by the generosity of their Governor the 
colonists were much encouraged in providing schools for 
the religious education of youth. Besides general contri- 
butions several special legacies were left for this purpose. 
Mr. Witmarsh left X500 to St. Paul's Parish for founding 
a free school. Mr. Ludlam, the society's missionary at 
Goose Creek, bequeathed all his estates computed to 
amount to £2000 currency for the same purpose. Richard 
Berresford, who had been sent to England with Joseph 
Boone to protest against the exorbitant power conferred 
upon Trott by the Proprietors and there had taken so 
prominent and able a part in their overthrow, by his will 
bequeathed the annual profits of his estate for the support 
of one or more schoolmasters who should teach reading, 
accounts, mathematics, and other liberal learning, and the 
other two-thirds for the support, maintenance, and educa- 
tion of the poor of the parish. The vestry accordingly 
received from this estate X6500 for promoting these pious 
and charitable purposes. This fund, says Dr. Ramsay, 
when he wrote (1808), is still in existence and had long 
been known by the name of Berresford's Bounty — and we 
may add was carefully preserved until destroyed or nearly 
so during the late war. The society in England sent out 
teachers, money, and books, and assisted greatly by their 
zeal and bounty toward the religious instruction of the 
people. So much, observes He watt, must be said for the 
honor of Governor Nicholson, whose liberality was con- 
spicuously displayed in behalf of religious institutions, and 
whose example excited the spirit of emulation among tlie 



68 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

people for promoting tliem. In Charlestown and in 
several parishes in the country public schools were built 
and endowed during his government, and every friend 
to knowledge and virtue, everj'^ well-wisher to posterity, 
seemed to promise themselves the greatest advantages 
from such wise and public-spirited designs. 

In January the Council presented a laudatory address 
to the Governor upon his anticipated departure ; ^ but it 
was not until April that he sailed. ^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 288. 2 /jj-^^.^ 291. 



CHAPTER V 

1724-28 

Under the Royal instructions it was provided that in 
the absence of the Governor the eldest councillor should 
take upon himself the administration of the government. 
Under this provision, upon the departure of Governor 
Nicholson, it fell upon Mr. Arthur Middleton, the Presi- 
dent of the Council, to do so. Mr. Middleton, it will be 
remembered, had been the Speaker of the Assembly who 
had delivered the address of the Commons, calling upon 
Governor Robert Johnson to declare that he held the gov- 
ernment for the King and not for the Proprietors, and 
had led the Revolution when Governor Johnson refused to 
turn against their Lordships, who had appointed him. In 
assuming the administration, however, Mr. Middleton did 
not assume the title of Governor, but styled himself Presi- 
dent and Commander-in-chief, and was so addressed. 

If Governor Nicholson's position, as but a provisional 
governor, had been a difficult one, Mr. Middleton's was 
still more so. The practical abandonment of the govern- 
ment by Sir Francis, before his Majesty was prepared 
permanently to establish his immediate authority, was an 
encouragement to the friends of the Proprietors to renew 
their intrigues for a restoration of their government. 
There was a party in the colony, as we have seen, who, 
under the influence of Trott and the Rhetts, were still 
restless under the Provisional government and predicting 
its withdrawal. Nor were their hopes groundless. Lord 
John Carteret, the Palatine, was now in high position in 



70 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his Majesty's court, and curiously enough, as one of the 
Secretaries of State, was administering the government of 
Carolina for the King, which he claimed for himself as 
Palatine of the Proprietors.^ There was enough in this 
circumstance alone to excite the hopes of the Proprietary 
party on the one hand, and the apprehension of their 
opponents on the other. 

On the 3d of February, 1723-24, Governor Johnson, 
who was then in London, addressed a very iuteresting 
letter to Lord John Carteret. ^ The Lords Proprietors, it 
will be recollected, had, through the influence of Trott 
and Rhett, treated Governor Johnson with great coldness 
and disdain, neglecting even to acknowledge the receipt 
of his communications reporting to them the uprising of 
the people against their rule, and explaining his own 
conduct. Lord Carteret, however, had been absent from 
London at the time, then being on a mission to Sweden. 
Governor Johnson now attempted to take advantage of 
this and to disconnect his Lordship from the other Pro- 
prietors. To this end he submitted a very ingenious 
proposition. He suggested if it might not be advisable 
for his Lordship to obtain the government of Carolina 
himself, and to act there by deputy, as Lord Orkney Avas 
then doing in regard to Virginia. Things might then 
remain as they were, in regard to the Lords Proprietors' 
pretensions. The word " provisional " might be inserted 
in his Lordship's commission as it was in Governor Nich- 
olson's. And then with great simplicity he added that 
he would be quite satisfied if he was thought worthy of 
acting as the deputy under his Lordship. 

It was not unusual in the Royal colonial governments 
for the Governor to remain in England and leave the 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Cn., vol. I, 234, 235. 

2 Colonial liecords of No. Ca., vul. II, 518. 



UNDER THE liOYAL GOVERNMENT 71 

administration of the colony to a Lieutenant Governor. 
This was tlie practice in regard to Virginia from 1705 to 
1728. Thus Sir Francis Nicholson himself had adminis- 
tered the government in Virginia as Lieutenant Governor 
under Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Edmund An- 
dres, the absent Governors-in-chief, and in the case of 
Lord Orkney, to which Governor Johnson refers, he was 
remaining at home in England and governing Virginia 
by his deputy, the stalwart soldier and ruler. Lieutenant 
Governor Sir Alexander Spots wood. ^ 

Lord Carteret does not appear to have paid any heed 
to this suggestion, but Governor Johnson was persistent, 
and was ultimately to be sent back as the first regular 
Royal Governor. In the meanwhile the Proprietors con- 
tinued to assert their right to govern the colony. On the 
27th of May, just about the time Sir Francis Nicholson 
was leaving the province, they made the appointment of 
Robert Wright as their Chief Justice, and at the same 

1 Keith's Hist, of Va., 168, 171 ; Cooke's Hist, of Va. (Am. Common- 
wealth Series), 301-310. In support of the statement that Lieutenant 
Governors were seldom appointed on the Continent, it has been observed 
that twenty-five Governors of South Carolina had received their com- 
missions from home, and five others had held the Gubernatorial Chair 
without commissions, while only three had been commissioned Lieutenant 
Governors, Am. Hist. JRevievj, vol. Ill, No. 3, 549. There were no 
Lieutenant Governors in South Carolina under the Proprietary govern- 
ment, but the three Lieutenant Governors under the Royal government 
held that position for near forty out of the forty-five years of that gov- 
ernment, to wit: Thomas Broughton from 1731 to 1737, William Bull 
(the first) from 1738 to 1755, William Bull (the second) from 1759 to 1775, 
and for more than sixteen years of that time administered the government 
as Lieutenant Governors. Under the Royal governments there were 
Lieutenant Governors of Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, 
New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. For a li.st of Governors and Lieutenant Governors of the 
various provinces, not, however, altogether complete, see Index to Hil- 
dreth's Hist, of the U. S., vol. III. 



72 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

time presented a memorial to the King, in which they 
stated that twelve months before they had proposed to 
surrender to his Majesty all interest in the province for 
the sum of X 25,000, that they had laid their title before 
the Attorney and Solicitor General, and a conveyance was 
thereon proposed with a covenant that they should con- 
sent to an act of Parliament authorizing the sale, and had 
been in daily expectation of having the surrender ac- 
cepted, but were surprised to hear that this could not be 
done without an act first obtained. They complained of 
being detained in town waiting the action of the govern- 
ment, and of the injury to the colony through the delay, 
and prayed his Majesty either to direct an immediate 
surrender or to allow them the full and free exercise of 
the power under the charter granted them by King 
Charles II.i 

Upon the application of Thomas Kimberley of the Mid- 
dle Temple for the appointment of Chief Justice, the 
Proprietors had agreed to give it to him, and on the 9th 
of February, 1724-25, had signed a commission for him 
as such.2 But on the lOtli of March, 1726-27, they 
recommend to his Majesty that Colonel Samuel Horsey be 
made Governor, Mr. Thomas Kimberley Attorney General, 
Mr. Robert Wright Chief Justice, and Mr. James Stanway 
Naval Officer, and their recommendation is taken into 
consideration by his Majesty's government.^ Colonel 
Horsey is consulted in June, 1727, by Lord Westmore- 
land, one of the Lords Justices, upon the subject of the 
appointment of a regular Governor, and is again pressed 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 175, 176. 2 Ihkl, 107. 

3 Ibid., 198. Colonel Horsey had served upward of twenty years in 
the Foot and Horse Guards, and in the year 1722 resigned liis post of 
Lieutenant Colonel in the 4th Horse Guards upon the promise of the 
Governorship of South Carolina. Ibid., vol. II, 292. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVEllNMENT 73 

by the Proprietors for the position as late as April 28, 
1728.1 Colonel Horsey and Mr. Thomas Lowndes appear 
to have been the agents of the Proprietors in the nego- 
tiations with the Royal government for the surrender 
of their charter, and on March 30, 1726, the Proprietors 
agree to make Colonel Horsey a Landgrave of Carolina, 
annexing thereto four baronies of twelve thousand acres 
each.2 In July following Mr. Lowndes purchased a Land- 
graveship and is made Provost Marshal under the Pro- 
prietors.^ Mr. Yonge, the agent of South Carolina under 
the Provisional government, learning of the recommenda- 
tion of Colonel Horsey by the Proprietors, presents a memo- 
rial against it, alleging that the inhabitants will speedily 
fall into the same commotions again if the Proprietors 
be allowed to elect the Governor.* The uncertainty of 
affairs under the Provisional government was in every 
way injurious, and, at length satisfied that they would 
never be allowed to resume their government of the colony, 
the Proprietors, on the 31st of May, 1727, petition the 
King, George L, to take the supreme sovereignty of the 
province hito his own hands. ^ King George I. did not 
receive this petition. He died before it reached England, 
and it was left to his successor. King George XL, to act 
upon it. 

Governor Nicholson had returned home charged with 
many complaints of the inhabitants. Mr. Middleton, 
who succeeded him in the administration, was to give still 
less satisfaction. Hewatt gives this character of Mr. 
Middleton. Mr. Middleton, he says, though of a reserved 
disposition, was a sensible man and by no means ill quali- 
fied for governing the province. But having succeeded 
a man who liberally spent all his salary for the public 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 243. 2 Ibid., 198. 

3 Ibid., 174. 4 Ibid., 173. e Ibid., 174. 



74 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

good, he was neither so much distinguished nor respected 
among the colonists. Beiqg possessed of a moderate 
fortune his chief study was to improve it, and he seemed 
to aspire to the character of a rich man in private hfe 
rather than that of a popuhir Governor and generous 
benefactor. As he had taken an active part against the 
Proprietary government, he was not insensible of the 
advantages now gained from the countenance given by 
the Crown, and was equally careful to promote loyalty 
to the King as the freedom and safety of his fellow-sub- 
jects.^ As a former leader of the people in a revolution 
and the present representative of the Royal government 
which, having accepted the results of the people's revolt 
against the Proprietors, was now curbing them with a 
stronger hand than their Lordships', Mr. Middleton had 
no easy part to play. It is certain that he did not master 
the difficult task. 

The first matter with which Mr. Middleton had to deal 
was the vexed one of the boundaries between Florida and 
Carolina. The Spaniards resented the building of the 
fort on the Altamaha, which had been established there 
by Colonel Barnwell. And the small garrison in the fort 
was in a state of great distress and almost in mutiny. 
The boundary between the possessions of Spain and Eng- 
land had never been settled by any agreement or treaty, 
and under the Proprietary government this had led to 
continual strife. Lord Cardross's colony at Port Royal 
had been destroyed by the Spaniards in 1686, and the 
planting of the town of Beaufort in 1710 had brought on 
the calamitous Yamassee war. Now the Carolinians had 
pressed farther their claim to possession, and had built 
this fort on the Altamaha. This gave great umbrage to 
the Governor of St. Augustine, who complained of it to 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 312. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 75 

the Court of Madrid, representing it as an encroachment 
on the dominion of Spain, and intended to seduce the 
Indians from their allegiance to his Catholic Majesty. 
The Spanish ambassador at London presented the com- 
plaint before the Court of Great Britain and demanded 
that orders be sent out to Carolina to demolish the fort. 
To prevent any interruption of the good relations then 
nominally subsisting between the two courts it was agreed 
to send orders to both the governors in America to meet 
in an amicable manner and settle the boundary between 
the two domains. 

In pursuance of these instructions of the home govern- 
ments Don Francisco Menandez and Don Joseph de Rabiero 
came from St. Augustine to hold a conference with Presi- 
dent Middleton and the Council of Carolina about the 
boundary between the provinces and the building of the 
fort on the Altamaha. The Spanish deputies were re- 
ceived by Mr. Middleton and Council, who assured them 
that the fort was situated within the bounds of the charter 
granted the Proprietors of Carolina, and resisted the pre- 
tensions of Spain to these lands as vain and groundless. 
Mr. Middleton told them the fort was erected on the 
Altamaha for defending the Carolinians and their property 
against the depredations of the Indians living under the 
jurisdiction of Spain. Then he demanded to know from 
them their reasons for protecting felons and debtors who 
fled from Carolina, and for encouraging negroes to leave 
their masters and take refuge at St. Augustine while peace 
subsisted between the two Crowns. The deputies replied 
that the Governor of Florida would deliver up all felons 
and debtors, but had express orders for twenty years past 
to detain all slaves who should fly to St. Augustine for 
liberty and protection. Mr. Middleton said he looked on 
such injurious orders as a breach of national honor and 



76 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

faith, especially as negroes were real estate, such as 
houses and lands, in Carolina. The deputies answered 
that the design of the King of Spain was not to injure 
private individuals, and he had ordered compensation to be 
made to the masters of such slaves in money, but that his 
humanity and religion enjoined him to issue such orders 
for the sake of converting slaves to the Christian faith. 
Such absurd religious pretences made of course no impres- 
sion on Mr. Middleton and his Council, who knew that 
the Spaniards themselves held slaves in bondage; and as 
to the alleged order for compensation to the masters, 
they knew it had never been carried out, if ever made. 
Mr. Middleton 's assertion that negroes were real property 
in Carolina was based upon the provision of the act of 
1690, then still of force, prescribing that negroes should 
be accounted as freehold. They were nevertheless always 
returned as personal property in the inventories of estates, 
as the records of the Ordinary's or Probate office in Charles- 
ton abundantly show.^ Such arguments satisfied neither 
party, and matters remained as they were. Nothing was 
accomplished by the meeting. 

Soon after these negotiations, in January, 1725-26, 
the fort on the Altamaha was burnt.^ The desire of the 
Spaniards to have the fort demolished naturally gave rise 
to the suspicion that it had been destroyed at their insti- 
gation, and this the desertion of twelve of the garrison 
to St. Augustine was well calculated to encourage. But 
Captain Edward Massey, who was sent from England to 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 360; Slaver)j in the 
Province of So. Ca. (1070), 177 (McCrady) ; Am. Hist. Ass. (180(5), 045. 
See Inventories in Probate office in Charleston under Mr. Middleton's 
hand aiid seal as Ordinary while acting as Governor. As instance, 
William Uhetl's Will Inventory Book of 1722-29, 361. 

=2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 236. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 77 

inquire into the circumstances, upon investigation re- 
ported that he could not discover that the fort was burnt 
by design, but there was reason to suspect that the gar- 
rison were not active in extinguishing the fire, hoping to 
be thus relieved from their miserable condition by the 
destruction of the fort. The garrison of this outpost 
consisted of a small independent company raised for 
the purpose. The disturbed state of the finances of the 
colony had prevented its proper maintenance, and the 
men were in a very deplorable and mutinous condition. 
The fort having been destroyed, the company was removed 
to Port Royal, and the southern frontiers of Carolina were 
again left open and defenceless. ^ 

As no settlement of the limits of the two provinces had 
been concluded, the Indians in alliance with Spain con- 
tinued to harass the British settlements. The Yamassees 
were as usual the most active, penetrating into Carolina 
in scalping parties, killing white men and carrying off 
negroes. Though the Spanish government had promised 
compensation in money to the owners of slaves taken, few 
of them received it. These depredations President Mid- 
dleton determined to put an end to. Colonel John Barn- 
well was no more. He had died in June, 1723, after 
having established the fort on the Altamaha, and Mr. 
Middleton had to look for another to put in charge of the 
frontier — one capable of dealing effectually with the 
Spaniards and Indians. He had not long to look. It 
will be recollected that during the Yamassee war, "a 
young stripling named Palmer " had signally distin- 
guished himself by scaling an Indian fort and driving the 
Indians from it.^ This young stripling, William Palmer 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 240, 242, 243 ; Ilewatt's Hist, of 
So. Ca., vol. I, 314. 

^ Hist, of So. Ca. tinder Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 535. 



78 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

by name, now come to a man's full estate, had developed 
into a soldier as able, as in his youth he had shown himself 
to be gallant. 

Colonel William Palmer was appointed Commander-in- 
Chief of the forces against the Yamassees, and at once 
organized a body of about three hundred men, consisting 
of a party of militia and some friendly Indians. With 
this little band he entered Florida and spread desolation 
throughout the province. He carried his arms to the gates 
of St. Augustine, and compelled the inhabitants to take 
refuge in their castle. Scarce a house or hut in the 
province escaped the flames. He destroyed their provi- 
sions in the fields and drove off their cattle, hogs, and 
horses. Some Indians he killed and others he made 
prisoners. In short, says Hewatt, he left the people of 
Florida little property except what was protected by the 
guns of their fort, and by this exi^edition convinced the 
Spaniards of their weakness and the danger of encouraging 
Indians to molest the subjects of Britain. He showed the 
Spaniards that the Carolinians, if provoked to retaliate, 
could prevent the cultivation and settlement of their 
province and render their improvement of it impracticable 
on any other than peaceable terms with their neighbors. ^ 

Nor were the Spaniards the only neighbors that caused 
trouble to the Carolinians at this time. The French from 
Louisiana were also encroaching upon them from the west, 
and using all their arts and address for gaining the interest 
and affection of the savage nations surrounding the Caro- 
linians. They erected a stronghold called Fort Alabama 
high up the Mobile River, which was excellently situated 
for opening and carrying on a correspondence with the 
most powerful nations around the British settlement. The 

1 Ilewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 314, 315 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. 
Ca., vol. I, 244, 245. 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOV^ERNMENT 79 

Carolinians had good cause to be on their guard against 
the influence of these insinuating and enterprising neigh- 
bors. The tribes of U^jper Creeks, whose hunting lands 
extended to their fort, were soon won over by promises 
and money to an alliance with the French. The Cherokees 
lived at a greater distance, but these they approached 
through the Creeks and other emissaries whom they sent 
among them. Communication was opened by way of the 
Mississippi with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and other 
nations residing near that river. To watch and counter- 
act the seductions and intrigues of the French, the Presi- 
dent of Carolina employed Captain Tobias Fitch among 
the Creeks and Colonel George Chicken among the Chero- 
kees. These agents were busily engaged, and found no 
small difficulty during the whole time Mr. Middleton pre- 
sided over the colony in counteracting the influence of 
French policy and preventing their union and alliance 
with these enemies. From this time the British and 
French settlers in America became competitors for power 
and influence over Indian nations, the one or the other of 
whom were always exposed to danger and trouble from 
them in proportion to the success of their rivals. The 
Carolinians were now farther from peace and safety than 
ever. The French supplied the savages with muskets and 
ammunition, for which they laid aside the bow and arrow, 
and became more dangerous and formidable than ever.i 

It was during Mr. Middleton's administration that 
Jean Pierre Puny, of Neufchatel, Switzerland, began his 
negotiations with the Proprietors, who yet retained their 
Proprietary rights to the soil, for the grant of lands for 
a colony of Swiss Protestants to be settled in the prov- 
ince, and which ultimately resulted in the unsuccessful 
attempt some years after under the Royal government. 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 315, 316. 



80 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In 1724-25 the Lords Proprietors granted Purry a barony 
of 12,000 acres in South Carolina, on or near the Savannah, 
upon the condition that he transport, within one year 
from the date of the grant, 300 people at his own charges, 
and promised him another barony of 12,000 acres more 
when there should be 1200 people settled by him in that 
part of the province.^ 

Mr. Middleton was not popular. Governor Nicholson 
had been gone but a few months before complaints fol- 
lowed him against the gentleman who ruled in his place. 
/^ Benjamin Whitaker, a lawyer, afterward Attorney General 
(1/) and Chief Justice, wrote to Governor Nicholson January 
^ 28, 1725-26, concerning the manner in which offices had 

been sold. He says £400 would make a provost marshal; 
Mr. Harvey by good fortune, however, got the place for 
X200. These proceedings, he adds, are very prejudicial 
to the government. He Avishes the return of the Gov- 
ernor to retrieve them from corruption. ^ Mr. Middleton 
must have been furnished with a copy of this letter, for 
he writes to the Governor a few days after — February 4 
— in answer to Mr. Whitaker's "false statement." Mr. 
Whitaker was not, however, the only person to make these 
charges. Laurence Coulliette, styling himself late Clerk 
of the Crown, of the Peace, and of the Court of Pleas, 
presents a petition to Thomas Broughton, Speaker, and 
the House of Assembly against Mr. Middleton, who, he 
states, has sold his places to Mr. Childumar Croft for 
£200.2 ]\/{p^ Middleton's more serious trouble was his 
collision with the House of Assembly over the Bills of 
Credit. 

The burning of the fort on the Altamaha caused a 
renewal of the issue in regard to the currency, between 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 197. 
^ Ibid., 2S1. ^ Ibid.,2'S1. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 81 

tlie President and Council on the one side and the House 
of Assembly on the other. It was necessary to rebuild 
the fort, but the Assembly refused to raise the money 
without reissuing the bills which had been directed to be 
burnt ; and to this measure the Council was forced to 
submit. In December, 1726, the Assembly voted an addi- 
tion to the currency of X86,100 in bills, and the Council 
disagreeing, the Assembly refused to raise any tax, though 
the colony was in great danger and in a defenceless con- 
dition. In refusing to yield to the demands of the Assem- 
bly in this matter, Mr. Middleton and his Council were 
but pursuing the instructions of the Lord Justices of 
England ; but Mr. Middleton himself, having led the 
Assembly only a few years before to assert their " rights 
and privileges," his constant allusion now to " the 
Royal prerogative " sounded strangely in contrast to his 
former conduct. The lesson the Assembly had learned 
under his leadership they were now disposed to repeat in 
a manner not agreeable to him in his present position ; 
mobs were formed, riots took place, and the Council were 
threatened for not complying with the popular demand 
for more money in paper bills. Mr. Middleton, in the 
exercise of his office as Commander-in-Chief, issued a 
proclamation ordering the rioters to disperse. Landgrave 
Thomas Smith, — the same Thomas Smith the second 
Landgrave, — who had been arrested by the Commons in 
1704 under the Proprietary government during the com- 
motions over the Church act, was arrested as ringleader, 
and committed by Alexander Skene, one of the Council. 
His arrest increased the troubles, which were somewhat 
appeased, however, for the time, upon his release. But 
the trouble was not over. 

A Tax act had been passed on the 11th of March, 1726, 
for raising the sum of £27,452 3s. 2d. for defraying the 

VOL. II G 



82 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

charges of the government for one year, commencing the 
29th of December, 1726, and ending the 29th of September, 
1727.^ Provision had therefore to be made for the gov- 
ernment at the expiration of that time. In May, 1727, 
the currency party, who were mostly from the country, 
sent two of tlieir leaders with a representation of their 
views to the Council. They were not received. In a few 
days they returned with two hundred and fifty men on 
horseback, and proceeded armed to the Council Chamber. 
The Council were not, however, to be intimidated, and dis- 
missed the party without an answer. Tumultuous meet- 
ings took place, and Landgrave Smith attempted to have 
himself proclaimed President, and was again arrested. New 
grounds of complaint were now raised, and demand was 
made for the call of an Assembly to redress them. Mr. 
Middleton, satisfied that the whole trouble was still about 
the currency, refused to do this, and the rioters became 
more defiant, held meetings, and boasted of their strength. 
So serious did the matter become, that Mr. Middleton 
thought it necessary to disband Captain Drake's company 
of militia ; whereupon the members at once reorganized 
themselves into an independent company with a white 
flag, and endeavored to seize two of the Council by way 
of reprisal for their leader Thomas Smith, who was still 
in custody. The merchants now intervened, and advised 
the calling of an Assembly ; whereupon the President 
issued his proclamation for the purpose. 

The Assembly met on the 2d of August, 1727, and at 
once passed resolutions reflecting upon the government 
and inquiring into the commitment of Landgrave Smith, 
who also had addressed a memorial to that body upon the 
manner of his apprehension and the denial to him of 
a habeas corpus. In this memorial INIr. Smith alleged 

1 Statutes of So. Ga., vol. Ill, 273. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 83 

that by virtue of a warrant dated Sunday, June 11, 1727, 
from Chief Justice Hepworth, his house had been sur- 
rounded by a body of armed men, and the town constable 
having- gained admission under a feigned protest, they 
rushed into his chamber, greatly terrifying his wife, who 
was in a delicate condition, and causing his eldest daughter 
to fall into fits, which occasioned her a long illness ; that he 
was apprehended and carried before the Chief Justice, who 
signed a mittimus charging him with high treason ; that he 
had applied for a habeas corpus^ which had been denied him ; 
he conceived that he had suffered very harsh treatment, 
considering that he was one of the eldest settlers in Carolina, 
and had spent twenty-five years in the public service. He 
prayed that the House would take his case into considera- 
tion, that he might be declared within the benefit of the 
habeas corpus act, and that a gentleman learned in the law 
might be heard in his behalf at the bar of the House. 

Several angry messages having passed between the 
Council and the House in regard to the Smith case, 
the President sent for that body and ordered them to 
desist from intermeddling in the affair, as it was a matter 
belonging to the King's courts only, telling them that 
he would not suffer the King's prerogative to be vio- 
lated. To this order the House pajdng no regard, but 
proceeding with the examination of Mr. Smith's memorial, 
the President prorogued them. For some reason, however, 
Chief Justice Hepworth had been removed from office, 
and Mr. Richard Allein, who, it will be remembered, had 
been Chief Justice under Moore's Revolutionary govern- 
ment, had been again appointed to that office ; ^ and by 
him Mr. Smith was, soon after the prorogation of the 
Assembly, admitted to bail upon the security of £10,000.2 

Several murders having been committed by the Yamassee 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 306. 2 /ftj^^., 293. 



84 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Indians, Mr. Middleton was obliged to make another effort 
to procure some legislation for the safet}^ of the province. 
On the 23d of August he called the Assembly, and when 
they met on the 1st of September, he sent them a message 
urging the necessity of providing for the security of the 
frontier against the Spaniards, French, and Indians ; but 
to this the Assembly paid no attention, and a bitter strug- 
gle ensued between the two houses, which precluded any 
attention to the public welfare and prevented any legis- 
lation for three years — indeed, during the remainder of 
the Provisional government. In the same spirit, as when 
led by Mr. Middleton himself in 1719, the Assembly had 
refused to allow the danger of foreign invasion to frighten 
them from insisting upon their domestic rights, they now, 
in answer to the urgent call of the President to look to 
the defence of the province, demanded a bill for ascertain- 
ing the rates of foreign coin. The President and Council 
refused their assent, as they were obliged to do. The bill 
proposed was not only in violation of the Royal instruc- 
tions, but intended to change the relative value of foreign 
coins, which had been tixed by act of Parliament in the 
sixth year of Queen Anne's reign. ^ It was clearly beyond 
the power of the President and Council to assent to a bill 
intended to repeal or alter an act of Parliament made 
especially to apply to the colonies. On the 21st the 
Assembly sent up another bill to fix the value of bills of 
credit and to oblige people to take them at that price, also 
to settle the rates of exchange. The Council rejected this 
as preposterous. At length, however, on the 30th, an act 
was agreed to, against, however, tlie recorded dissent of 
two of the Council, for an expedition against the Indians, 
upon which the President dissolved the Assembly. 

A new Assembly met on the 31st of January, 1727-28, 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under the Prov. Gov. (McCrady), 483. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 85 

and the President made them his speech. On the 1st of 
February the Assembly replied, promising fairly, but voted 
no taxes for securing the frontier, sending instead a bill 
for applying the sinking fund for that purpose. This the 
Council rejected. And so the contest was carried on 
obstinately upon both sides. From 1727 to 1731 the same 
measure practically was eight times sent wp to the Presi- 
dent and the Council, and always rejected. President 
Middleton dissolved the Assembly six times, and six times 
ordered new elections, — he holding fast to "the Royal 
prerogative," his favorite expression; they holding as fast 
to their " rights and privileges. " ^ As in most of such con- 
troversies, neither party was entirely in the right, and 
neither blameless in their conduct. It was prej)osterous, 
as the Council said, to attempt to fix the value of foreign 
exchange by act of a provincial assembly, and it was 
equally absurd for this little colonial Assembly to under- 
take to circumvent an act of the British Parliament — fully 
within the scope of its power — enacted for the very pur- 
pose of preventing what the Assembl}^ was now attemj)ting 
to do. But, on the other hand, the people who were behind 
the Assembly in this matter were not without some justice 
on their side ; and this, before the controversy was over, 
the merchants in London, by whose advice and in whose 
interest the Board of Trade and Plantations there was 
acting, were compelled to admit. 

In 1730 several eminent merchants and traders in London^ 

1 Godin's Representative Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 300, 305; 
Chapter Colonial Hist. (River's), 59. 

2 These merchants were Joseph Wyeth, Samuel Wragg, John Bell, 
Anthony Neal, John Hewlett, John Watkinson, William Hudson, William 
Cam, William Wragg, Stephen Cobebel, Jacob Bell, James Maintree, 
Andrew Broughton, Samuel Arnold, Richard Shubrick, George Halfhyde, 
Thomas Parsons, John Auns, Thomas Plumstead, John Goven, and 
Bichard How. 



86 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

came forward and themselves prayed the Lords Commis- 
sioners of Trade and Plantations to permit this compro- 
mise: to allow the province to call in all the old bills, 
and in lieu thereof to stamp and issue X 100, 000 and no 
more of new bills, and moreover that the law then sub- 
sisting for sinking the paper currency might be suspended 
for seven years, and the sums arising thereby might be 
annually applied for buying tools and provisions for such 
poor Protestant people as should go and settle there. In 
asking this they represented that the yearly exports of the 
province amounted to upwards of £100,000 sterling, and 
that the present paper bills in the colony, being nominally 
about X 100, 000, because of their depreciation did not 
amount to more than X 15, 000 sterling. The request, 
coming from this source, was complied with, and in the 
instructions of Governor Robert Johnson, who was soon to 
come out as the first regular Royal Governor, articles were 
inserted for carrying out this purpose.^ Thus again the 
people had triumphed. In the first instance they had 
been led by Mr. Middleton; in the second they had suc- 
ceeded against him. 

During these disturbances a very discreditable occur- 
rence had taken place in the Council chamber. On the 
10th of May, 1728, the Assembly had resumed the affair 
of Landgrave Smith. Mr. Smith, as we have seen, had 
been admitted to bail by the new Chief Justice, Richard 
Allein, but that did not satisfy the members of the As- 
sembly ; they demanded his release, and complained to the 
House of the Chief Justice for not having discharged him. 
The House ordered the Chief Justice to attend and justif}^ 
himself at their bar. This the Chief Justice refused to 
do, alleging very properly that the matter was not one 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 175, 176; Brport on the State 
Paper Currency of So. Ca. (1737), 7, Pamphlet Charleston Library. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 87 

cognizable before that body. Upon this the Assembly 
ordered their messenger to take the Chief Justice into cus- 
tody; and though he was then sitting with the President 
in Council, the messenger undertook to execute the order, 
and attempted to take the Chief Justice from the Council 
board. President Middleton and Council resented this 
as an unparalleled affront, while, on the other hand, the 
Assembly resolved the President's proceedings to be arbi- 
trary. Upon the advice of the Council the President dis- 
solved the Assembly on the 9th of July. A new Assembly 
was called, and met in the same temper. The same weari- 
some course was renewed and followed. The Speaker 
claimed that the Assembly in Carolina was entitled to the 
same privileges as the Commons of England enjoyed. The 
President in answer desired them to provide for the public 
debts and safety of the government by a tax, and by way 
of a bribe informed them of the intention of the British 
Admiralty to make Port Royal a rendezvous for ships of 
war. This promise seems to have had some temporary 
effect, for the Assembly answered, agreeing to have Port 
Royal surveyed; but they soon went back to their old 
position, and to prevent any falling away from it resolved 
to have no committee of ways and means for granting a 
supply. They sent up the old currency bill for setting a 
rate on foreign coin, which of course the Council rejected. 
Though urged by the President to provide for the support 
of the government, the Assembly adjourned, and would 
not again "make a House." 

In despair, the President and Council prayed that a new 
Governor might be sent, with additional instructions, to 
prevent such " exorbitances " for the future. They sent 
Mr. Stephen Godin, a merchant of Charlestown, to England 
with a letter of Representation, in which they related at 
great length and in great detail the circumstances of this 



88 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

controversy, from which statement this account has been 
in the main taken. ^ They wrote to the Duke of Newcastle 
that the disturbed state of the province had put them 
under the necessity of applying to his Majesty for relief. 
They told him of the contemptuous behavior of the Assem- 
bly, which broke up to avoid raising a public tax; that 
no supplies had been granted in twenty months, and of 
their fears of the desertion of the gariisons through want 
of pay. Mr. Godin would deliver their re[)resentations 
to his Grace, which they prayed might speedily be placed 
before his Majesty in council. They were afraid that the 
great length of the paper might prove an obstacle to its 
being read, yet tlie particulars therein had been stated with 
all the brevity possible. The paper currency being the 
cause of all the trouble, they had endeavored to demon- 
strate briefly the notorious frauds practised for many years 
by the different Assemblies by means of these paper bills ; 
and then, after glancing at the purport of other portions 
of these representations, they go on to say that the end of 
the whole is to obtain from his Majesty some order to 
restrain the insolences and exorbitances alluded to, and 
particularly to prohibit the Governors receiving temporary 
gifts or presents from the Assembly. This is the great 
bane, they say, and much lessens the Royal prerogative; 
the province is well able to settle a fixed salary of .£500 
upon a Governor, and the Governors' and officers' fees 
ought to double what they were then; the sum of £500 
they allowed their revolutionary Governor, Mr. Moore, but 
would only give it to Mr. Nicholson by way of present, in 
order to keep him dependent upon their precarious humors ; 
the instructions to Governor Nicholson to insist on a fixed 
salary, and not to take any more, did not answer the desired 
end, for the Assembly would not fix a stated salary. ^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 300-306. 2 /^j^^.^ 299. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 89 

Fortunately for the province the legal difficulties which 
had existed as to the shares of the Proprietors had at length 
been settled by a decree of the House of Lords, and the 
negotiations which had been in progress for the purchase 
by the Royal government of the property rights of seven 
of the Proprietors, and the surrender of the charter, had 
been ultimately concluded and an act of Parliament passed 
authorizing and carrying into effect the agreement.^ His 
Majest}' was now in a position to put an end to the inef- 
ficient provisional rule and firmly to set up and establish 
a regular Royal government in the province. 

Before we close this chapter, however, we must record 
two other great calamities which befell the province the 
year before her prosperity began. During the summer of 
1728, says Dr. Hewatt, the weather in Carolina was ob- 
served to be uncommonly hot, by which the face of the 
earth was entirely parched, the pools of standing water 
dried up, and the beasts of the field reduced to the greatest 
distress. After such a long and general drouth, the in- 
habitants having usually observed hurricanes and torna- 
does to follow in autumn, they began to look with almost 
superstitious dread for them as that season of the year 
approached. Nor did their fears at this time belie them. 
A dreadful hurricane burst upon them in the end of 
August, and occasioned an inundation which overflowed 
the town and the low lands, and did incredible damage 
to the fortifications, houses, wharves, shipping, and fields. 
The streets of Charlestown were covered with boats, 
boards, and staves, and the inhabitants were obliged to 
take refuge in the higher stories of their dwellings. 
Twenty-three shijis were driven ashore, most of which 
were either greatly damaged or dashed to pieces. The 
Fox and Garland^ men-of-war stationed in Charlestown 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under the Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 673-680. 



90 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

harbor for the protection of trade, were the only ships 
that rode out the storm. Though this hurricane levelled 
many thousand trees on the coast, yet so thick was the 
forest, it was said, that it was scarcely perceived an hun- 
dred miles from the shore. 

The same year the yellow fever again broke out in the 
town and swept off multitudes of the inhabitants, both 
white and black. The people suffered for want of pro- 
visions. The town depending entirely on the country for 
its supplies, and the planters suffering no person to carry 
provisions to it for fear of catching the infection and tak- 
ing it into the country, the townspeople were cut off in a 
great measure from their means of living. The ph3"si- 
cians as yet knew not how to heal the disease, — if indeed 
they do so to-day, — and it proved quickly fatal. The 
calamity was so general that few could give assistance to 
their distressed neighbors. There were scarcely to be 
found sufficient white persons to bury the dead, and so 
quick was the decomposition after death, so offensive and 
infectious were the corpses, that even the nearest relations 
shrank from the duty. 



CHAPTER VI 

1729-30 

Upon the passage of the act of Parliament accepting 
and confirming the surrender of the Proprietors' charter, 
and the final assumption by his Majesty King George II 
of the immediate government of the province, Governor 
Robert Johnson was chosen to inaugurate the first regular 
Royal administration. 

This was indeed a great triumph for Governor Johnson. 
Refusing to betray the interests of the Proprietors, by 
whom he had been commissioned, he had lost his ofhce as 
Governor of the province, which the people, recognizing 
his high character and remembering his gallant conduct 
in their defence against the pirates, were well content that 
he should hold, if only he would declare that he did so 
for the King. But this he would not do, as he had been" 
appointed by the Proprietors ; and yet his loyalty and 
constancy had been rewarded only with cold disdain and 
silence by those for whom he had sacrificed his position. 
Now his Majesty, appreciating and honoring the lo3^alty 
which would not permit him to act in the Royal interest 
if at the expense of others who had intrusted him with 
theirs, returned to him the office he had refused to retain 
in any manner inconsistent with his good faith. Mr. Mid- 
dleton, as Speaker of the Commons, had made him give way 
to a revolutionary governor. Now the party which Mr. 
Middleton then led having quarrelled with him, Mr. Mid- 
dleton was made to give way for Governor Jolmson's resto- 
ration with a still higher commission and still greater honor. 

91 



92 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor Johnson was in England at the time, and as 
early as the 9th of December, 1729, his commission and 
instructions were in preparation; and as Sir Francis 
Nicholson had been consulted in the preparation of those 
for the Provisional, so Governor Robert Johnson was now 
consulted in the preparation of those for the permanent 
Royal government.^ Though the government under Sir 
Francis Nicholson had been in terms merely provisional, 
and though the Proprietors had honied and intrigued for a 
restoration of their rule, apparently at times with some 
prospect of success, the Royal authorities had shown in 
the case of the draft of their instructions to Sir Francis 
and of the scheme of government they laid down that they 
were but preparing the way for the assumption of a per- 
manent rule. Governor Johnson's instructions were in 
the main, therefore, little more than an enlargement of 
those of Governor Nicholson. 

The people had overthrown the Proprietors and had 
appealed to be taken under his Majesty's immediate care 
and government ; but they soon found that his Majesty's 
government was but that of the Lords Commissioners, or 
Board of Trade and Plantations ; and this was to continue 
until the beginning of the difficulties with the mother 
country, when in 17G8 the Earl of Hillsboro was intrusted 
with the cai:e of the provinces as Secretary of the Colonies. 
The people of South Carolina had rebelled against the 
Proprietary government because of its tyrannical conduct, 
its incompetence, and its neglect of the affairs of the 
province. But that government had rested upon the 
charter under which it was held, and that was as binding 
upon the Proprietors as upon the colonists. It was the 
charter of the rights of the people as well as the title and 
authority of the Proprietors. It was, as we have else- 

1 Cull. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 173. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 93 

where said, a written constitution to which the former 
could appeal and by which the latter were restricted in 
the exercise of their power. The people had thus become 
accustomed to a written rule or measure of government. 
Upon their revolt the Proprietary government had been 
set aside. But what had the colonists gained by way of 
guarantee of their rights and liberties ? They had com- 
plained that some of the Proprietors were minors, and the 
rest so occupied with the business and pleasures of their 
immediate surroundings, that the affairs of the province 
were neglected and left to the management of their secre- 
tary. But if those having a most valuable proprietary 
interest in the province neglected its affairs because of 
their absence, what greater attention and better care was 
to be expected from a like distant board, the members of 
which had no personal interests in its prosperit}'? The 
time was not long in coming when they were to find the 
Lords Commissioners, the masters for whom they had ex- 
changed the Proprietors, still more arbitrary and neg- 
ligent of their affairs, and their vital interests again in 
the hands of a clerk, as it had been in the time of the 
Proprietors. 

Under the government now to be set up, the Governor, 
Council, and Assembly constituted the three branches of 
the legislature, with power to make such laws as might be 
thought necessary and not repugnant to the laws of Great 
Britain. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and mem- 
bers of the Council were all appointed by the King; the 
Assembly elected by the freeholders in the same manner 
as provided by Governor Nicholson's instructions and the 
act upon the subject passed under his administration. 
The title of the Governor was that of " Governor in chief 
and Captain General in and over the Province." He also 
received a Vice Admiral's commission. But these high- 



94 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sounding titles Governor Glen in 1748 complained con- 
veyed very little power. The Governor was little more 
than the agent of the Board of Trade. His Council, ap- 
pointed by the King, were twelve in number, to whom 
was added the Surveyor General of his Majesty's customs 
in the colonies, who had a seat in council in all the gov- 
ernments within his district. With the consent of the 
Council and Assembly, it was said that the Governors 
had full power and authority to make, constitute, and 
ordain laws, statutes, and ordinances, but with this pro- 
viso, that all such laws, statutes, and ordinances, of Avhat- 
soever nature, or duration soever, be within three months 
or sooner after the making thereof, transmitted to England 
for the Royal approbation or disallowance. This was the 
same pernicious provision which had existed under the 
Proprietary government, by reason of which no laws could 
go into effect for months, or even years, after their enact- 
ment by the Assembly, and then only with the sanction 
of the Board of Trade acting in his Majesty's name. The 
Governor had a veto power, so that no law could be sub- 
mitted to the Board of Trade in London but with his con- 
currence; but he could, on the other hand, put no law 
into execution without the previous permission of that 
body. This was a grievous evil, to continue throughout 
the Royal government, and to lead to great trouble and to 
cause great inconvenience and distress to the province. 
It is not too much to ^ny that the evil effects of this pro- 
vision are felt to the present day in the unfortunate differ- 
ences between the up])er and lower country of the state; 
for these are directly traceable to the dehiy and refusal of 
the Board of Trade to allow courts to be established and 
parishes to be laid out in the newly settled upper part of 
the province, as proposed by the colonial Assembly, be- 
cause, forsooth, as will appear hereafter, the clerk of that 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 95 

Board held the patent for the office of Provost Marshal of 
the province, which he exercised by an assignee in Caro- 
lina, and feared that the establishment of courts with 
sheriffs in the new settlements would deprive him of the 
fees which came to him as marshal of the whole province. 

When the Governor was present the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor had no other duties but those of a member of the 
Council. ' In the absence of the Governor the duties of 
that office devolved upon him, but he was allowed but 
half the salary of the Governor. The Governor was ad- 
dressed as his Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor as his 
Honor ; and this distinction was preserved even while the 
latter was administering the government. 

In the place of the Council of Deputies under the Pro- 
prietors, a Council not exceeding twelve, as just men- 
tioned, was appointed by the King, usually, but not 
always, upon the recommendation of the Governor. Three 
of these might constitute a quorum; but the Governor was 
not to act with a less number than four, except upon ex- 
traordinary emergencies. The Council sat as a distinct 
parliamentary body, in which freedom of debate was ex- 
pressly secured, and laws were enacted in the name of the 
Council as well as of the Commons or Lower House. The 
style and character of the two Houses, and their relation 
to each other, became and continued throughout the Royal 
government to be the subject of question and discussion, 
as they had under that of the Proprietors; it is well, there- 
fore, to observe here that the style of enacting laws under 
the Provisional government had been by his Excellency 
the Governor " by and with the advice and consent of the 
Council and Assembly of this Province."^ Under Gov- 
ernor Johnson, in 1731, this power for a time was modified 
so as to read " by and with the advice and consent of his 

^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol, III, 159 et seq. 



96 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Majesty's honorable Council and the Commons House of 
Assembly."^ But the title "Commons House" had been 
expressly prohibited by special instructions to Governor 
Nicholson in 1729, and the title Lower House prescribed. ^ 
In 1733 recurrence was had to the prescribed form,^ and 
it continued to be used until 1755, when, under Governor 
Glen, in the enacting clause of the statute the Lower 
House was again styled the Commons House of Assembly,* 
and the form was pi'eserved during the remainder of the 
Royal government. 

The manner of conducting parliamentary business closely 
followed that of England. Upon the meeting of the As- 
sembly the Lower House, or Commons, chose a Speaker, 
and thereupon a message was sent by two members to 
inform his Excellency of the organization of the House 
and the election of a Speaker. All communications by 
the House to the Governor, we may add, were made in 
this manner by a message borne by two members. It was 
within the power of the Governor to allow or disallow the 
choice of a Speaker; but there is no instance of the dis- 
allowance of such an election, though in some instances, 
as we shall see, the person chosen was distasteful to the 
Governor. Upon receiving the message from the House 
informing him of its organization and choice of a Speaker, 
following the custom and form of Parliament in England, 
the Governor would send the House a message by the 
Master in Chancery, summoning the House to the Council 
chamber, as the Commons in England are summoned to 
the House of Lords. The Commons having come into the 
Council chamber, the Governor would address the two 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 304. 

2 Coll. Hist. Snc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 119. 
8 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 343. 

* Ibid., vol. IV, 14. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 97 

bodies in a "speech," in which he Avoukl communicate to 
them whatever he had in command from the King to lay 
before them, and also his suggestions and recommenda- 
tions. The Commons then would withdraw and return to 
their chamber, where each body would prepare and return 
an address in answer to the Governor's speech. The 
two Houses communicated with each other by messages. 
During the controversy as to the right of the Council to 
alter or amend a tax bill, which occurred in the last days 
of Governor Johnson's administration, and which out- 
lasted his life, the Council is spoken of in the Commons 
journal indifferently as a Board and as an Upper House, 
and in the declaration upon the subject, which the Com- 
mons, as we shall see, caused to be engrossed upon a 
separate page in large and bold letters, the Council is 
styled "The Upper House of Assembly." 

For some time after the establishment of the Royal 
government, the councillors were chosen from the men of 
highest position in the province, and these served without 
emolument or reward save the high estimation attached to 
the office ; but as time went on, and an estrangement grew 
up between the mother country and the colonies, seats in 
the Council were filled by strangers, — mere place men, — 
who came out to fill small offices on paltry salaries. 

During Governor Johnson's administration, he reports 
that besides those of the Governor and Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor the following were the places within the gift of the 
Crown, and their value; Chief Justice, £120; Provost 
Marshal, £150; Secretary of the Province, £200; Clerk of 
the Crown and Pleas, £40; Register of Conveyances, £20; 
Master in Chancery, £20. To these, however, there were 
fees and other perquisites attached which probably in- 
creased tlieir value very considerably. The offices of the 
Attorney General, Receiver of the King's Quit Rents, 



98 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and Surveyor General, depending entirely upon fees, had 
no value attached, as being variable.^ These offices were 
known as Patent Offices ; i.e. they were granted by 
patents — Royal writings sealed with the Great Seal.^ 
Some of these patents were assignable ; for instance, the 
offices of Provost Marshal or High Sheriff, and Clerk of 
the Courts were held by patent, usually to one person, and 
that a non-resident of the colony, who, by assignment, 
farmed them out to persons in the colony who performed 
their duties and divided with the patentees the fees and 
perquisites. The office of Provost Marshal, instead of 
a High Sheriff, was an inheritance. Bryan Edwards in 
his History of the West Indes says that, as the name de- 
notes, the office of Provost Marshal was of a military 
origin, and doubtless was first instituted in those islands 
before the introduction of civil government, and was con- 
tinued afterwards by custom. The patent was usually 
granted for two lives, and the patentee was permitted to 
act by deputy. 3 It may be remembered that Edward 
Rawlins held this office under the Proprietors in 1699 
when he died, and George Rodd held the office in 1716. 
The appointment of Thomas Lowndes by the Proprietors 
in 1725, notwithstanding that the King was administering 
the government provisionally, was one of the measures 
by which they asserted the continuance of their right to 
the government. Their grant was to Thomas Lowndes, 
his heirs and assigns, of " the offices and places of Provost 
Marshal, Clerk of the Peace and Clerk of the Crown of 
and in the province of South Carolina in America for the 
several and respective natural lives of the said Thomas 
Lowndes and Hugh Watson of the Middle Temple Geu't 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. II, 275. 

2 Jacobs's Law Die, Title Patent. 

8 Hist, of West Indes, Bryan Edwards, vol. I, 213. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 99 

to execute the same by the said Thomas Lowndes his 
heirs and assigns or by his or their sufficient deputy or 
deputies." When the government was formally sur- 
rendered by the Proprietors to the Crown in 1729, Mr. 
Lowndes, claiming to have been instrumental in bringing 
about the surrender, received a renewal of the patent from 
the Crown in 1730. He assigned the patent for these 
offices to George Morley, who soon after came out and 
assumed the duties. In 1736 Morley returned to Eng- 
land, and, upon his nomination, Robert Hall was appointed 
to succeed him, which he did and^ held until his death in 
1740. We have been thus particular in treating of this 
office, its origin, and its nature, for it will be found here- 
after to have been one of the impediments to the set- 
tlement of the country, and to have been involved in the 
differences between the colonists and the mother country 
which led to the Revolution. 

We have seen the failure of Governor Nicholson's grand 
scheme for the establishment of a city government. The 
colonists evidently thought the less government the better, 
and, as the parish had been adopted as the unit of civil 
as well as ecclesiastical administration, and the machinery 
of the church wardens and vestry made use of for some 
civil purposes, the vestry and wardens of St. Philips 
Church were deemed sufficient for such municipal duties 
as were regarded necessary. The Rev. Alexander Garden 
had arrived in Charlestown in 1719, the year of the over- 
throw of the Proprietary government, and had been elected 
Rector of St. Philips ; and as such he was to serve faith- 
fully thirty-four years. In 1723 the new church, which 
had been built in the last years of the Proprietary gov- 
ernment, was completed and opened, and, in 1726, Mr. 

* Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 174 ; Lowndes of South Carolina 
(Chase), 12. 

LofC. 



100 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Garden had been appointed Commissary of the Bishop 
of London, abont the jurisdiction of which office there 
could be now no longer any question, as formerly, since 
the Bishop's jurisdiction had been particularly established 
by the Royal instructions of both Sir Francis Nicholson 
and of Governor Robert Johnson. The register of births, 
marriages, and deaths of St. Philip's still exists from the 
year 1720 ; that is, from the beginning of Dr. Garden's 
pastorate. There are no minutes of this vestry prior to 
1732.1 They have been preserved continuously from that 
time. 

In the first vestry of which we have the record, we find 
the names of three Huguenots, — Colonel Samuel Prioleau, 
son of Elias Prioleau the pastor, the founder of the 
Huguenot Church in Charleston, and the most distin- 
guished and prominent of all the Huguenots who came 
to the province, Mr. Gabriel Manigault, the son of the 
emigrant and Judith Manigault, a most interesting sketch 
of whose remarkable career is found in the 4th number of 
the Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Caro- 
lina, and Mr. John Abraham Motte, the founder of the 
distinguished family of that name. The presence of these 
Huguenots in the first vestry of this, the Church of Eng- 
land, of which we have record, is mentioned, as it indicates 
the relation of the French Protestants generally to that 

1 See Hist, of So. Ca. under the Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 412-442. The 
earliest journal begins with this entry : "At a meeting of the Parishoners 
of St. Philips, Charlestown, at the Church on Easter Monday the 10th 
April, 1732, as many of the Parishoners of the Church of England as 
thought fit to give their attendance did then and there choose the follow- 
ing Gents for Vestiymen and Church Wardens for the present Year, Pur- 
suant to an Act in this Province in that case made and provided, viz : 
His Excellency Robert Johnson, Esq., Governor, Col. Prioleau, Captain 
Greene, Mr. Yeoman, Mr. Manigault, Mr. Motte, Mr. Fairchild ; Church 
Wardens, Ca])tain Robert Austin and Mr. William Mackenzie." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 101 

body. and their affiliation with it. A few entries from 
the journal will show that these offices were no sinecures, 
and will indicate tlie municipal and other duties imposed 
upon the vestry and wardens of St. Philip's in the absence 
of a City Council. From these it will appear that there 
is little reason to wonder that persons had to be forced 
to serve as such, under penalties for refusing. 

An account is opened " The Parish of St. Philip^ 
Church Charles Towne, William Rhett a7id Henry Housea^ 
Wardens.'''' It charges them with cash received from Gov- 
ernor Nicholson ; from the former church wardens ; from 
" Mr. Joseph Wragg out of the Sacrament money " ; from 
the clerk in part of the assessment for the year 1725 ; 
from " a legacy for the poor," etc. It credits them with 
" cash gave for the support of John Newton turned into 
the streets X6." "Ditto Thomas Garrat sick with the 
flux <£2.10." Ditto Mary Matthews in a poor and miser- 
able condition <£1.05, and so on day by day. We find 
them collecting fines " for a man swearing without a book," 
paying money " for six days work levelling the street " 
and " filling up the pond." In 1742 we find these entries : 
" 10 Novem'' By Ditto received from Benjamin Smith a 
fine recovered by Justice Gibbs from Peter Boez for 
knocking down Mr. Pinckney negro X2." . . . "Ditto 
from Mr. Tributed for retailing Rum on Sunday 10s." 
Ditto " Sunday fines received of several persons for walk- 
ing ab' street of a Sunday During Divine Service 19s. Qd.''' 
The same, April 11, 1743, £1 5s. August 3, 1745, "for a 
white man beating a negro" £2. August 7, 1747, "By 
Do. of Mr. Gibbes for persons beating negroes" X6. 
February 24, 1749, " Rec'd Coll Austin for a white man 
striking a negro" X2. Ditto for Jas. Larden striking a 
negro, <£2, etc. 

In 1733 Mr. John Laurens, another Huguenot, is elected 



102 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

a church warden ; and on the 9th of April he informs the 
vestry that Dr. William Turner was willing to take charge 
of the poor of the parish and look after them for .£100 
current money a year, which the vestry consented to give. 
On the 5th of July, 1734, the vestry sign a tax-list for 
.£1000, which they were authorized to assess and levy 
toward the relief and maintenance of the poor. In 1738 
the tax-list is signed for <£1531 18s. 3c?., and so on. 

These were the principal features of the government 
which Robert Johnson was about to be sent to inaugurate 
in South Carolina. 

While the Royal authorities were busy preparing and 
settling the form of government they proposed to set up 
and establish, before Governor Johnson's return with his 
new commission, they made an effort to secure a better 
understanding with the Indians in and surrounding the 
province the King had just purchased. For this purpose 
Sir Alexander Gumming was appointed Commissioner, 
and sent out to conclude a treaty of alliance with the 
warlike and formidable nation of the Cherokees. Sir 
Alexander arrived in Carolina about the beginning of the 
year 1730, and at once made preparation for his journey to 
the distant hills. For his guides he procured some Indian 
traders well acquainted with the woods, and an interpreter 
who understood the Cherokee language. When he reached 
Keowee, about three hundred miles from Gharlestown, the 
chiefs of the towns met him, and received him with marks 
of great friendship and esteem. A general meeting of all 
the chiefs was summoned to hold a congress with him at 
Nequasse, and in the month of April the chief warriors of 
all the Cherokee towns assembled at the place appointed. 
After various Indian ceremonies were over. Sir Alexander 
made a speech to the Indians, informing them by whose 
authority he was sent, and representing the great power 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 103 

and goodness of his sovereign King George. He told 
them he had come a great way to demand of all the chief- 
tains of the nation to acknowledge themselves the subjects 
of the King, and to promise obedience to his authority. 
The chiefs, falling on their knees, solemnly promised 
fidelity and obedience, calling upon all that was terrible 
to fall upon them if they violated their promises. 

Sir Alexander then by their unanimous consent nomi- 
nated Moytoy Commander-in-Chief of the Indian nation, 
and enjoined all the warriors of the different tribes to 
acknowledge him for their king, to whom they were to be 
accountable for their conduct. To this they all agreed, 
provided Moytoy should be answerable to Sir Alexander 
for his behavior to them. Many useful presents were 
made to them, and the congress ended to the great satis- 
faction of both parties. The crown was brought from 
Tenassee, their chief town, which, with five eagle tails 
and four scalps of their enemies, Moytoy presented to Sir 
Alexander, requesting him on his arrival in Britain to lay 
them before his Majesty's feet. But Sir Alexander pro- 
posed to Moytoy that he should depute some of their own 
chiefs to accompany him to England, there to do homage 
in person to the great King. Six of them accepted the 
invitation and accompanied Sir Alexander to Charles- 
town, where, being joined by another, they embarked for 
England in the Fox man-of-war, and arrived at Dover in 
June, 1730. 

Being admitted to the King's presence, in the name of 
their nation, the Indian chiefs promised to continue forever 
his Majesty's faithful and obedient subjects. A treaty 
was accordingly drawn up and signed by Alured Popple, 
Secretary to the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, 
on the one side, and by the Indian chiefs on the other. 

The treaty declared that his Majesty the great King 



104 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

took it kindly that the great nation of Cherokees had sent 
them so far to brighten the chain of friendship) between 
him and them and between his people and their people ; 
that the chain of friendship between him and the Cherokees 
was like the sun, which shone both in Great Britain and 
also upon the great mountains where they lived, and 
equally warmed the hearts of Indians and Englishmen; 
that as there was no spot or blackness on the sun, so neither 
was there any rust or foulness on this chain. And as the 
King had fastened one end to his breast, he desired them 
to carry the other end of the chain and fasten it to the 
breast of Moytoy of Telliquo, and to the breasts of all the 
old wise men, their captains, and people, never more to 
be weak, loose, or broken. 

The great King and the Cherokees being thus fastened 
together by a chain of friendship, it was agreed that his 
children in Carolina should trade with the Indians and 
furnish them with all manner of goods they wanted, and 
to make haste to build houses and plant corn from Charles- 
town toward the Cherokees behind the great mountains; 
that the English and Indians should live together as 
children of one family, that the Cherokees be always 
ready to fight against any nation whatever, white men or 
Indians, who should dare to molest or hurt the English; 
that the nation of Cherokees, on their part, should take 
care to keep the trading path clean, that there be no blood 
on the path where the English stood, even though they 
should be accompanied with other people with whom the 
Cherokees might be at war. 

The Cherokees were not to suffer their people to trade 
with white men of any other nation but the English, nor 
permit white men of any other nation to build any forts 
or cabins or plant any corn among them upon lands which 
belonged to the great King; that if any such attempts 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 105 

should be made, the Cherokees must acquaint the English 
Governor therewith, and do whatever he directed. That 
if any negroes ran away into the woods from their English 
masters, the Cherokees should endeavor to apprehend them 
and bring them back, and for every slave so apprehended 
and brought back, the Indian bringing him should receive 
a gun and a watch coat ; and if it should happen that an 
Englishman should kill a Cherokee, the king or chief of 
the nation should first complain to the English Governor, 
and the man who did the harm should be punished by the 
English laws, as if he had killed an Englishman ; and in 
like manner, if any Indian happened to kill an English- 
man, the Indian should be delivered up to the Governor 
to be punished by the same English laws as if he were an 
Englishman. 

The treaty, that it might be the easier understood, was 
drawn up in language as similar as possible to that of 
the Indians, which at that time was very little known in 
England, and given to them certified and approved by Sir 
Alexander Cumming. 

In answer to the King's address one of the Cherokees, 
Skijagustah, in name of the rest, made a S]3eech, which 
Hewatt gives at length, in which he declared that they 
looked upon the great King George as the sun and their 
father, and upon themselves as his children. For though 
we be red, he said, and you are white, yet our hands and 
our hearts are joined together. When we have acquainted 
our people with what we have seen, our children from 
generation to generation will always remember it. In 
war we shall always be one with you. The enemies of 
the great King shall be our enemies ; his people and ours 
shall be one. In concluding he said, " Your white people 
may very safely build houses near us; we shall hunt 
nothing that belongs to them, for we are children of one 



106 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

father, the great King, and shall live and die together." 
Then, laying down his feathers upon the table, he added, 
" This is our way of talking, which is the same to us as 
your letters in the book are to you, and to you, beloved 
men, we deliver these feathers in confirmation of all we 
have said."^ 

The wise measures, says Ramsay, adopted by Sir Francis 
Nicholson, the first Royal Governor, and the treaties after- 
ward entered into with the Indians by Sir Alexander 
Gumming, the settlement of Georgia, and the judicious 
measures adopted by General Oglethorpe, together with 
the increasing strength of the whole people and the de- 
creasing number of the Indians, all concurred in preserv- 
ing peace with the savages so far that for forty years 
subsequent to the Yamassee war in 1715 the peace of the 
province was preserved without any considerable general 
interruption. 2 

1 Hewatt's, Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 4-11. 
8 Kamsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 166. 



CHAPTER VII 

1731-32 

Governor Robert Johnson's instructions having been 
finally settled, he sailed for Carolina, bringing with him 
the Indian chiefs with whom his Majesty had entered into 
the treaty, as just related, impressed with the power and 
greatness of the English nation, and pleased with the kind 
and generous treatment they had received. He arrived in 
Charlestown in the beginning of the year 1731. He also 
brought with him a commission for his brother-in-law, 
Thomas Broughton, as Lieutenant Governor of the prov- 
ince, and one for Robert Wright as Chief Justice. The 
members of his Council were William Bull, James Kin- 
loch, Alexander Skene, John Fenwicke, Arthur Middle- 
ton, Joseph Wragg, Francis Yonge, John Hammerton, and 
Thomas Waring. 

Richard Allein, Francis Yonge, Charles Hill, and 
Thomas Hepworth had been acting as Chief Justices 
during the Provisionary government of Sir Francis Nichol- 
son, but the Lords Proprietors not yet having surrendered 
their charter, and still claiming the right to fill the office, 
had appointed Robert Wright Chief Justice for life. And 
so in 1726 we find Thomas Lowndes, in the petition to 
the Duke of Newcastle in regard to the office of Provost 
Marshal to Avliich we have before referred, setting out that 
during the negotiation with the Crown, which he claimed 
to have carried on in behalf of the Proprietors, it had been 
stipulated that should the grant to Robert Wright of the 
office of Chief Justice be surrendered and he acquiesce 

107 



108 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in a commission during liis Majesty's pleasure, that he, 
Lowndes, should have the offices of Provost Marshal, 
Clerk of Peace, and Clerk of the Crown for his own life, 
and the life of another severally, and praying that as that 
arrangement had been effected by him, the necessary direc- 
tions should be given in order that he might have the 
offices.^ The understanding appears to have been carried 
out, and these offices were thus united, and held in Eng- 
land during the Royal government as sinecures, the duties 
being performed by assignees of the patent or deputies 
in South Carolina, — a matter, as we have said, to prove 
of great annoyance, and causing infinite trouble to the 
colony, — one, indeed, which had no little influence in 
preparing the way for the overthrow of the Royal govern- 
ment itself. This Robert Wright, who, by the surrender 
of a doubtful title to a life tenure under the Proprietors, 
secured a better title, durate bene placito, under the Crown, 
was the son of Sir Robert Wright, who was Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench at the time of the trial of the seven 
Bishops, — the last of the profligate Chief Justices, as 
Lord Campbell describes him.^ The South Carolina Chief 
Justice was a very different man froin his father. Unlike 
his father, he was a judge of professional ability and high 
character. We shall soon see him involved in a struggle 
with the Governor, Council, and Commons in a matter in- 
volving the liberties of the people. It may be added that 
he was more fortunate in his son than in his father. His 
son, Sir James Wright, becoming successively Attorney 
General, Chief Justice, Lieutenant Governor, and Gov- 
ernor of Georgia, a man of marked ability and character.^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 250. 
" Lives of the Chief Justices (Campbell), vol. II, 83. 
3 Hist, of Georgia (Stevens), vol. I, 455 ; Ilildreth's Hist, of U. S., vol. 
II, 511 ; III, 279. 



UNDEK THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 109 

While his Majesty's government had been very jealous 
in watching and guarding the political powers it was 
granting in establishing the new rule, now that it had 
taken the colony under its immediate care, it was liberal 
in its favors for the material prosperity of the province. 
The great end for which the agents in London had been 
laboring was accomplished. The restraint upon the ex- 
portation of rice under the navigation acts was released 
so far as to allow the Carolinians to ship it directly to 
any port south of Cape Finisterre, instead of carrying it 
first to England and then reshipping it to Spain, Portugal, 
and the Mediterranean ports, as they had hitherto been 
obliged to do since it had been put upon the enumerated 
lists. This favor was supposed to be of an immense im- 
portance to the colony, but, as it will appear, did not in 
fact add so much to its wealth as had been expected. 
Another favor of the same kind was a bounty upon hemp 
which was allowed by Parliament. Another, which was 
regarded by the people with great satisfaction, was an 
instruction to the Governor empowering him to give his 
assent to an act allowing for seven years a part of the 
duties which had been appropriated to the discharge of 
the bills of credit to be applied instead to the purchasing 
of tools, provisions, and other necessaries for Protestant 
settlers in the province. In pursuance of this instruction 
an act commonly known as the Appropriation Law was one 
of the first measures of the new administration. Under 
this act .£77,000 in bills were stamped and issued. Then 
the arrears of quit-rents bought from the Proprietors were 
remitted by a bounty from the Crown. Seventy pieces of 
cannon were sent out by the King, and the Governor had 
instructions to build a fort at Port Royal and another on the 
Altamaha in the place of that destroyed. An independent 
company of foot was allowed to be raised for the defence of 



110 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the province by land, and sliips of war were stationed for 
the protection of trade. No wonder that Governor Johnson, 
returning with these and other favors, was joyfully received 
as his Majesty's representative. The colony deemed itself 
emerging from the depths of poverty and oppression and 
rising to a state of freedom, ease, and affluence.^ 

The first matter of importance which met Governor 
Robert Johnson on his assumption of the Royal govern- 
ment was that in regard to the boundary between the now 
separate and distinct provinces of North and South Caro- 
lina. This matter of boundary had not been of so much 
importance Avhile the two colonies constituted but one 
province. But now that, under his Majesty's govern- 
ment, the territory was divided, and distinct governments 
established, it became necessary that the limits of the two 
provinces, as they now were, should be definitely defined. 
In fact, however, this matter was not finally settled until 
1815, and in the meanwhile was the subject of many 
disputes. The question met Governor Johnson on the 
threshold of his administration. 

Upon assuming the immediate government in North 
Carolina upon the surrender of the charter by the Pro- 
prietors in 1729, his Majesty had pursued the same course 
as he had adopted in regard to South Carolina. He had 
appointed the last Proprietary Governor of that province 
its first Royal Governor. But Governor George Burring- 
ton was a man of very different character from Governor 
Robert Johnson. The latter, it is true, had been deposed 
by his people, but his people loved and honored him none 
the less because he would not desert the Proprietors, from 
whom he held his commission, and they had joyfully re- 
ceived him upon his return as Governor under the King. 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Co., vol. IT, 12, 13 ; Statutes of So. Co., vol. 
Ill, 301 ; lieports on the State of the Paper Currency, 1737 (Pamphlet). 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 111 

But in North Carolina there was no such attachment to 
Governor Burrington, who appears to have been a man 
of ability, but of violent and ungovernable temper and 
tyrannical conduct.^ 

Both Governors were in England while their commis- 
sions and instructions were being prepared, and had been 
called together before the Board of Trade and consulted 
in regard to the boundary line of the two provinces. The 
Board of Trade, in their draft of instructions to Governor 
Burrington, had directed that, in order to prevent any 
dispute as to the southern boundary of the province under 
his government, it was their "pleasure that a line should 
be run (by commissioners appointed by each province), 
beginning at the sea thirty miles distant from the mouth 
of the Cape Fear on the South West thereof, keeping the 
same distance from the said River as the course thereof 
runs to the main source or head thereof, and from thence 
the said Boundary line shall be continued due west as far 
as the South Seas." Governor Burrington was not satis- 
fied with this boundary and laid before their Lordships a 
map of Colonel Moseley, showing the rivers Cajje Fear and 
Waccaniaw, and insisted upon the Waccamaw River being 
the boundary from the mouth to the head thereof. Gov- 
ernor Johnson, on the other hand, desired their Lordships 
not to alter their instruction, which placed the boundary 
thirty miles distant from the mouth of the Cape Fear. 
To this the Board of Trade agreed, unless the mouth oi 
Waccamaw was within thirty miles of the Cape Fear, in 
which case it was agreed by both Governor Burrington 
and himself, as Governor Johnson understood, that the 
Waccamaw should be the boundary. ^ Upon this agree- 

1 Prefatory Note to vol. Ill, Colonial Becords of No. Ca. (W. L. 
Saunders) . 

" Governor Johnson's Proclamation, So. Ca. Gazette, November 4, 1732. 



112 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ment the following clause was added to tlie instruction : 
" But if Waggamaw river runs within fifty miles of Cape 
Fear then that river to be the boundary from the sea to 
the Head thereof and from thence to keep the distance of 
30 miles parallel from Cape Fear River to the head thereof, 
and from thence a due west course to the South Seas."^ 

The point of difference between Governor Johnson's 
understanding, it will be observed, is that while Governor 
Johnson understood the agreement to be that the Wacca- 
maw was not to be the boundary unless the mouth of that 
river was within thirty miles of the Cape Fear, Governor 
Burrington's instructions read that the Waccamaw was to 
be the boundary if that river ran within fifty miles of the 
Cape Fear. The Waccamaw, it happens, runs for miles 
parallel to the coast and its mouth is within forty miles of 
the Cape Fear, and so by the letter of Governor Burring- 
ton's instructions that river was the northern boundary of 
South Carolina. 

Governor Johnson knew nothing of the terms of Gover- 
nor Burrington's instructions, and of his claim thereunder, 
until the 21st of October, 1732, when there appeared in 
the South Carolina Grazette the following notification by 
Governor Burrington : — 

" I am informed that several persons in South Carolina have taken 
out warrants there to survey lands formerly possessed by the Con- 
gerree Indians, which are within this government. Therefore to 
prevent unadvised people from parting with their money to no pur- 
pose and to give satisfaction to all persons whom it may concern I 
have transcribed his IMajesty's instructions for ascertaining the bounds 
of the two governments of North and South Carolina." (Here follows 
the instructions as above.) 

Governor Johnson, in the next issue of the Grazette of 
the 4th of November, 1732, published a proclamation 

^ Colonial Records of Xo. Ca., vol. Ill, 115. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 113 

expressing his surprise at Governor Burrington's adver- 
tisement, giving his version of the matter as above, and 
stating that he had informed the Lords of Trade of the 
different interpretations Governor Burrington and himself 
had put upon the instructions, and desiring his Majesty's 
farther orders thereon. Governor Glen, writing in 1748, 
declared that the dispute was kept alive by persons 
who thus evaded the payments of quit-rents to either 
government. 1 

This curtailment of her territory on the north was not, 
however, near so great a loss as that she was about to ex- 
perience on the south. The scheme of Sir Robert Mont- 
gomery to establish a colony — " the Margravate of Azilia, " 
as it was termed — between the Carolina planters at Port 
Royal and the Spaniards at St. Augustine, had fallen 
through, as we have seen, during the revolution which 
overthrew the Proprietary government. That scheme was 
now to be resumed by another under other auspices. 

It happened that contemporaneously with the purchase 
by his Majesty of the Proprietary interest in Carolina 
James Edward Oglethorpe, then a member of Parliament, 
was pressing his inquiries into the state of jails of the 
Kingdom, from which grew his scheme for the coloniza- 
tion of debtors and criminals as a means of relieving the 
British prisons and furnishing an asylum for these un- 
happy people whose miseries he was forcing upon the 
attention of the government and public. In the prosecu- 
tion of this scheme he conceived the idea of using these 
people instead of the colony of Scotch Sir Robert Mont- 
gomery had endeavored to organize, thus at once giving a 
place of refuge to the unfortunate debtors and criminals, 
to whom the dano-er of tlie tomahawk of the Indian was 
scarcely to be more dreaded than their present suffering; 

1 Carroll's Cull., vol. II, 198. 

VOL. II — I 



114 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and at the same time establishing a colony which would 
be a barrier between the Spaniards at St. Augustine and 
their Indian allies and the peoj)le of South Carolina. 

To carry out this purpose a memorial was presented to 
the Privy Council by himself and others, noblemen and 
gentlemen, proposing to take upon themselves the charge 
of the southern frontier, if the Crown would grant them 
a portion of the land bought from the Proprietors lying 
south of the Savannah River, and give them such cor- 
porate powers as would enable them to receive the chari- 
table contributions and benefactions of such persons as 
were willing to encourage so good a design. The scheme 
of planting this living wall between the growing colony 
of South Carolina and their long-dreaded neighbors was 
readily accepted. On the 9th of June, 1732, his Majesty 
George the Second granted a charter which, reciting that 
South Carolina in the late war had been laid waste by fire 
and sword and great numbers of the English inhabitants 
miserably massacred by the neighboring savages, and that 
his Majesty's loving subjects living there, by reason of .the 
smallness of their numbers in case of a new war would be 
exposed to like calamities, for the purpose therefore of 
settling and peopling the frontier granted to certain 
"Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in 
America" a part of the former province which was de- 
scribed as "all those lands, countries, and territories situ- 
ate, lying, and being in that part of South Carolina in 
America which lies from the most northern part of a 
stream or river then commonly called the Savannah all 
along the seacoast to the southward until the most south- 
ern stream of a certain other great water called the Al- 
tamaha and westwardly from the heads of the said Rivers 
respectively in direct lines to the South Seas." This 
grant, it will be observed, did not cover all the territory 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 115 

to the south of the Savannah, but carved out of it a prov- 
ince, leaving a considerable tract, between the Altamaha 
and Florida, which still belonged to South Carolina. 
The Governor of South Carolina in 1762, regarding the 
lands to tlie south of the Altamaha as still belouCTiiio- to 
his province, granted several tracts, whereupon the Gov- 
ernor of Georgia complained to the King, who, by 
proclamation dated the 7th of October, 1763, annexed 
to Georgia all the lands Ij'ing between the Altamaha 
and the St. Mary rivers. This, however, still left a 
strip lying between the North Carolina line and that of 
Georgia, which was claimed by South Carolina. It was 
not until after the revolution, to wit, the 28th of April, 
1787, that the boundary was settled by a convention be- 
tween the States of South Carolina and Georgia. This 
settlement left to South Carolina but a small strip of 
territory extending westwardly to the Mississippi, which 
was ceded to the United States by act of the 9th of 
August following.^ 

The boundaries of South Carolina thus settled include 
an area of about 30,000 square miles. ^ The territory thus 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 169, 411, 413. 

2 By the first map of South Carolina, which was made by "William 
Gerald l)e Brahm in 1757, the area is estimated at 33,760 square miles. 
James Cook, in 1771, and Henry Mauzon, in 1775, published in London 
excellent maps, from which Drayton and Ramsay make the area 24,080. 
Between 1816 and 1820 the State expended $52,760 on a map of the 
State, under the direction of John Wilson, which was published in 1822. 
The State spent .*>12,000 more for the purpose in 1825, and obtained Robert 
Mills's large Standard Atlas, which has been the basis of all subsequent 
atlases, and the accuracy of which has been fully established by all sub- 
sequent geographers. Mills estimates the area of the State at 30,213 
square miles. The United States census of 1870 puts it at 30,170. The 
area of South Carolina may thus be assumed to be a little over 30,000 
square miles. See Drayton's Vieiv of So. Ca., 3 ; Ramsay's So. Ca.., vol. I, 
29 ; Mills's Statistics, 179 ; South Carolina'' s Resources and Population, 3. 



116 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

defined approaches in shape tlie form of an isosceles tri- 
angle — the equal sides being on the north the boundary 
line of North Carolina, and on the south and west the 
Savannah River separating it from Georgia. The apex 
of the triangle rests upon the summit of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains at their extreme southern end. The base, 
sweeping with a gentle shaped curve from the southwest 
to the northeast, forms a part of the Atlantic shore line 
of America.^ 

Thus was the immense territory covered by the grant 
of Charles the Second divided, and that of South Carolina 
curtailed. This curtailment was doubtless in a great 
measure the result of the ignorance of the government in 
England of the geography of the country. The division 
between North and South Carolina, even had the Wacca- 
maw River been taken as the boundary, would not have 
been illiberal to South Carolina had she retained the rest 
of the territory covered by the charters. Nor would there 
have been much reason to complain had the mouth of the 
Savannah been fixed upon as the beginning of her southern 
boundary, had that boundary line been run due west. It 
was, with little doubt, ignorance in regard to the course 
and direction of the Savannah River that caused the great 
inequality in her domain as compared with that of her 
sister province. It was not only territory that South 
Carolina lost at this time; her population was greatly 
reduced. In 1724 the white population was about 14,000, 
and the slaves, mostly negroes, about 32,000, in all 46,000.2 
In 1734 the whites had fallen to 7333, the negroes to 
22,000. The whole population was but 29, 333. ^ It must 

1 South Carolina's Besources and Population, publislied by State 
Board of Agriculture, 1883, 3. 

2 Governor Glen, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 261. 
8 Drayton's Vini} of So. Ca., 193. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 117 

be remembered that this population was still confined 
almost entirely to the seacoast. 

But fresh tides of population were now to set in, and, 
following up the rivers, were gradually to penetrate other 
parts of the province. The peculiar formation and char- 
acteristics of the territory of South Carolina have doubtless 
affected its settlement and population to no little extent. 
A brief sketch of its main features is therefore not only 
pertinent, but necessary, indeed, to follow the various 
streams of population which were to flow into her borders 
during the next thirty years, and to understand their 
influences upon the subsequent history of the State. The 
admirable work compiled and prepared by the State Board 
of Agriculture, and published in 1883, entitled South 
Carolina's Resources and Population^ Institutions and In- 
dustries^ gives us a most comprehensive and excellent 
description of the general features, physical and agricul- 
tural, of the area of the State; and from this we have 
collated the following account. 

The coast of South Carolina, from the mouth of the 
Savannah to that of Little River on the North Carolina 
line, is about 190 miles in length. The shore rises 
gradually from the Atlantic Ocean and is intersected by 
numerous inlets, creeks, and marshes, dividing the coast 
into a number of islands. From Winyaw Bay to Charles- 
ton harbor, though numerous, these islands are small and 
low; below this harbor they increase rapidly in size and 
number to the waters of the Port Royal, where they line 
the shore in tiers three or four deep, attaining their great- 
est development around Broad River, and diminishing 
again in size and number as they approach the Georgia 
line at the mouth of the Savannah. The islands on the 
immediate coast-line present a sandy front to the sea, 
undulating with conical sand-hills sixteen or twenty feet 



118 IllSTOUV OF SOUTH CAKOHNA 

hit;li, while the sides next the maiiihiiul are level and low 
and are connected with extensive marshes, also intersected 
by ci'eeks and inlets. Ivising from the sand-hills the i)al- 
metto, from which the State derives its appellation of the 
""Palmetto State, " stands ont a conspicuous landmark to 
those who a[>|)ro;u'h from the sea. Be3'ond rise the dark 
green turrets of the pines, beneath which a tangled growth 
of myrtles and vines is found. 

Behind these islands the mainland presents a level 
country, with a surface of liglit black earth on a stratum 
of sand, and that sometimes rising on a stratum of marl 
or clay. Those lands generally produce extensive pine 
forests, known by the name oi pine barnnis^ because of 
tlieir unprodui'tivc nature. They rise for eighty miles or 
more by an almost im[)erceptible ascent, until their eleva- 
tion reaches the maxinnim of 134 feet above the sea.^ The 
characteristic irrowth of this region is the long-leaved 
pine, extending in open pine woods over the wide plain, 
Avith scarcely any undergrowth except here and there a 
scrub oak and coarse wild grass. This is jirobably not its 
natural appearance, but has been caused by the innnemorial 
custom derived from the Indians of burning the dry grass 
in the spring in order to hasten the early pasturage — a 
custom which destroys the 3'oung shrubs which would 
slioot up into a growth of underwood. 

A number of swamps and bays are found throughout 
tliis region, wliicli branch out and unite by an iniinity 
of dilYcrcnt mcandcrings, sooner or later emptying their 
waters into some river or outlet from the sea. Natural 
meadows, called savannas, here abound. 

riie soil oi scnne of the sea islands is of a very sandy 
nature, jtroducing small jiinos and bay trees, live oak, 
cedar, palmctti\ n\yrtle, cassina, wild olive, jirickly pear, 

^ At Hranchville in Orauirelmrjr County. 



UNDER THE ROYAL (JOVEUNMENT 119 

seaside oats, and scattering, coaisc saline gi'asses. The 
soil of others, though sandy, is extremely fertile, and the 
land is wooded witii pine, white oak, red oak, live oak, 
gum, hickory, dogwood, sassafras, elm, laurel, and bay, 
while their undergrowth is covered with a profusion of 
shrubbery and jasmine. The palmetto reaches only a few 
miles in hind from the salt water, but the live oak is found 
as far as sixty miles from the shore line. In the savanna 
region the magnolia, tulip tree, sweet and black gum, the 
white and red bays, the white oak, the black oak, the wal- 
nut, the elm, hickory, and cy})ress are among the largest 
and most conspicuous trees of the swamps; the undei- 
growth, commencing with a fiinge of gallberiy on the 
margin of the swamps and consisting of a gi'cat variety of 
grape, briar, and other vines, myrtle, etc., is veiy dense. 

Twice a day the tides, with endless ebb and flow, swec}) 
thi'ough the innumerable in hits, ci'ceks, and })assages 
which pierce the islands and the nuul Hats in their rear. 
Here the great rivers of the upper connty, which take their 
rise at the foot of the Bine Ridge Mountains, mingle their 
fresh waters with the brine and lose their way to the sea 
amidst a labyrinth of tortuous passages.^ 

Parallel with this coast-line trend the divisions between 
the various geological formations. 'J'luise, with here and 
there a patch of the miocene and cretaceous formations, 
stretch back into the interior about one hundred miles, 
until they reach the crystalline rocks, whose well-marked 
line has during the entire past history of the State divided 
it socially, politically, and industrially into what has 
always been known as the U})per country and the low 
country of South Carolina. This division of the State 
into up country and low country by the line bounding the 
southern margin of the crystalline rocks, and trending 

^ South Carolina liesonrces, etc., Oil. 



120 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

northeast and southwest across the central portion, is 
strongly marked in everything: in the hills and the 
high lands of the up country, with their heavy red clay 
soils, and in the gentle slopes or wide flats of lighter 
colored sandy loam of the low country ; in the rapid, turbid 
water-courses of the one and the slow, clear currents of the 
other; in the vegetable growth, the chestnut and the de- 
ciduous oaks, and the short-leaf pine occupying the upper 
country and the long-leaf pine, the magnolia, and the ever- 
green oaks, with the long gray moss, marking the low 
country; and lastly in the manners, character, ancestry, 
and even in the tones of voice of the inhabitants. 

Perpendicular to this direction — that is to say, in a 
southeasterly course — the four great rivers with their 
numerous tributaries that drain and irrigate South Caro- 
lina make their way from the mountains to the sea. Be- 
fore leaving the crystalline rocks — the point that marks 
their lower falls and the head of steam navigation — the 
rivers have received the rapid currents of nearly all their 
affluents. Thereafter the stately flow proceeds more 
slowly, passing the great inland swamps of the low coun- 
try as if the waters still remembered where they found 
issuances through these ancient deltas. As each river 
leaves the region of rocks to enter the borders of the low 
country, it makes a sudden and Avell-marked detour east- 
ward, except the Savannah, which seems to have had its 
bed shifted westward at the time of demarkation. 




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CHAPTER VIII 

1732-34 

Vigorous measures were now adopted for the more 
speedy population and settlement of the province. By 
his instructions Governor Johnson was directed to mark 
out eleven townships in square plats on the sides of the 
rivers, each consisting of 20,000 acres, and to divide the 
lands within them into shares of fifty acres for each man, 
woman, and child that should come over to improve them. 
Each township was to form a parish, and all the inhabi- 
tants were to have equal rights to the river. So soon as 
the parish increased to the number of a hundred families, 
it was to have the right to send two members of their own 
election of the Assembly and to enjoy the same privileges 
as the other parishes already established. Each settler 
was to pay four shillings a year for every hundred acres 
of land, excepting the first ten years, during which they 
were to have the lands rent free. Eleven townships were 
marked out, — two on the river Altamaha, two on the 
Savannah, two on the Santee, two on the Pee Dee, one on 
the Waccamaw, one on the Wateree, and one on the Black 
River. These townships acquired the following names. 
One on the Savannah near its mouth became known as 
Purrysburg, or Swiss Quarter; the other on that river, 
opposite the present site of the city of Augusta, New 
Windsor. The only township laid out on the Pee Dee 
was called Queenstown ; that on the Wateree, Fredricks- 
burg; that on the Black River, Williamsburg; and that 

121 



122 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

on the Waccamaw, Kingston. Of the two directed to be 
laid out on the Santee one was called Amelia, and the 
other, which was on the part of that river now known as 
Congaree, was called Saxe Gotha. Another, not one of 
those apparently specifically contemplated by the instruc- 
tion to Governor Johnson, was laid out on the north fork 
of the Edisto and became known as Orangeburg Township. 
The territory ordered to be laid out in two townships on 
the Altamaha became a part of the new province of 
Georgia. Two of the townships afterward became par- 
ishes, to wit, Amelia and Orangeburg; and three others, 
Kingston, Williamsburg, and Saxe Gotha, became elec- 
tion districts ; ^ but except in these instances the township 
was nothing more than a designation of so much territory. 
The door was thrown open to Protestants of all denomi- 
nations, and great inducements were held out to settlers. 
And notwithstanding another terrible season of yellow 
fever in Charlestown population began to flow into the 
province. In the year 1732 the fever appeared as early as 
May and continued until September or October. In the 
height of the epidemic there were from eight to twelve 
whites buried a day, besides people of color. The ringing 
of bells was forbidden, and little or no business was done. 
From the inducements offered between the years 1730 
and 1750 a great addition to the strength of the province 
was made by emigrants from Germany, Holland, Switzer- 
land, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, to be followed between 
1750 and 1760 by another tide, that of the Scotch Irish, 
coming by the foot of the mountains from Pennsylvania 
and Virginia. 

1 He watt's Hist, of So. Ca.., vol. II, 27 ; The Formation of Judicial 
and Political Stibdivisions in So. Ca. by John P. Thomas, Jr. ; Extracts 
from the Transactions of the Fifth Animal Meeting of the So. Ca. Bar 
Ass., 1889. See Map Frontispiece. 



UNDER THE HOYAL GOVERNMENT 123 

The Pro})rietors, it will be recollected, in 1724-25, 
while still holding to their territorial proprietary rights, 
had promised Jean Pierre Furry a barony of 12,000 acres 
upon the condition that he would transport 300 people 
within one year from the date of the grant at his own 
charge, and another barony of 12,000 when there should 
be 1200 people settled by him in the province. Purry, 
who was a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland, — formerly 
Director General in the service of the India Company 
in France, — had persuaded himself (1) that of all the 
climates of the world there must necessarily be one better 
than the rest, and (2) that the best climate should neces- 
sarily be on or about the thirty-third degree of latitude, 
because in that zone the degree of heat and temperature of 
the air is best adapted to evoke abundantly from the earth 
— and that without much labor and expense — every 
essential to life. In accordance with this theory it must 
necessarily follow, he held, that Carolina and New Mexico 
on the northern side, and Chili and Rio de la Plata on the 
southern, are as a whole the best countries in America, 
because they are situated on or about the thirty-third 
degree. Holding this view Purry had come to Carolina 
and persuaded himself that experience had demonstrated 
its correctness, and returning to England he had presented 
a memorial to the Proprietors, dwelling at length upon 
his theory and developing his scheme of colonizing the 
province with Protestants from Europe.^ "Never per- 
haps," he said, "have circumstances been more favorable 
for enlisting excellent colonists from Switzerland. How 
many families are to-day in that country in debt through 
the misfortunes of the times and the stagnation of trade! 
How many young men are there who do not know what to 

^ Memorial, etc, by Jean Pierre Purry, privately printed, Charles C. 
Jones, Jr., 1880. 



124 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

do or upon Avliat matter to bestoAV their attention, and who 
have no means of support save the profession of arms! 
How many are there who refrain from marriage for fear 
of bringing more unhappy souls into the world, of whom 
there are already too many! This arises from the fact that 
the population of Switzerland is too dense, considering 
the sterility of its soil; that peace has obtained in Europe 
for the past twelve or thirteen years; that there is no 
longer any demand for cattle, and the peasant can no more 
find a market for his horses. It is not well that Switzer- 
land should be as thickly populated as it is. Nearly 
eighteen hundred years agone the inhabitants of this 
nation en masse formed the resolution to burn their dwell- 
ings and go in search of another country, where they hoped 
to find habitations pleasanter and more spacious than those 
they possessed among these barren mountains." 

In order to attract these people to Carolina, he thought, 
it was only necessary to distribute circulars in all direc- 
tions assuring them of a truth that there is no region in 
France, in Spain, in Italy, or, in fine, in the whole of 
Europe which equals Carolina in attractiveness ; that just 
as much land as they can possibly cultivate will be given 
to such as desire to establish themselves there, especially 
to those wdio are suffering persecution because of their 
religion ; that all will be furnished with free passage across 
the sea in the King's ships ; and finally that his Britannic 
Majesty will extend to them all the charitable aid which 
they could hope from the Royal bounty in order that they 
might enjoy happy lives and form prosperous settlements 
in the country. 

Upon the surrender of the charter of the Proprietors, 
Purry renewed his negotiations with the Royal govern- 
ment, and, obtaining an assurance of the grant of land as 
promised by the Proprietors, issued the circulars he had 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 125 

proposed. In 1731 he drew up at Charlestown a descrip- 
tion of the province.^ He states that in consequence of 
the Royal instructions he was permitted to choose on the 
borders of the river Savannah land proper to build the 
town of Purrysburg, and, having found such as he wished, 
the government had made him a grant thereof under the 
seal of the province dated the 1st of September, 1731, and 
at the same time had published throughout the whole 
country a prohibition to all persons to settle on the said 
land, which was called the Swiss Quarter. The Assem- 
bly, he said, had granted him X400 sterling and pro- 
visions sufficient for the maintenance of 300 persons for 
one year, provided they were all persons of good repute 
and Swiss Protestants, and that they came to Carolina 
within two years. 

The Savannah River, he declared, was the finest in all 
Carolina, the water good and stored with excellent fish. 
It was about as large as the Rhine. The town of Purrys- 
burg would be situated thirty miles from the sea and seven 
from the highest tide, upon a most delightful plain, which 
was formerly esteemed by the inhabitants of the province 
the best place in all Carolina. Then he went on to de- 
scribe the excellences of the country, the fertility of the 
soil, and the ease of accumulating wealth. The most 
part of those who first came to Carolina, he said, were 
very poor and miserable. Several of those, he wrote, 
who were then most considerable went out as servants. 
His address contained some interesting, if over-colored, 
pictures. 

"The Trade of Carolina," he said, "is now so considerable that of 
late years there has sail'd from thence Annually above 200 ships 
laden with merchandizes of the Growth of the country, besides 3 ships 
of war which they conmionly have for tlie Security of the commerce 

1 CarrolPs Coll., vol. II, 121, 140. 



126 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and last Winter they had constantly 5 the least of which had above 
100 Men on Board. It appears from the Customhouse Entries from 
March 1730 to March 1731 that there sail'd within that time from 
Charles Town 207 ships most of them for England which carried 
among other Goods 41957 Barrels of Rice about 500 Pounds Weight 
per Barrel; 10751 Barrels of Pitch 2063 of Tar and 1159 of Turpen- 
tine ; of Deer Skins 300 casks containing 8 or 900 each : besides a 
vast quantity of Indian Corn, Pease, Beans &c. ; Beef, Pork and other 
salted Flesh, Beams, Planks and Timber for Building most part of 
Cedar, Cypress, Sassafras, Oak, Walnut and Pine. . . . There were 
between 5 and 600 houses in Charles Town the most of which were 
very costly. ... If you travel into the country you will see stately 
buildings, noble castles and infinite number of all sorts of cattle. If 
it be ask'd what has produced all this? The answer is 'Tis only the 
rich Land of Carolina." 

Alas for the poor Swiss who accepted Purry's state- 
ments! his tlieories in regard to the advantages of the 
climate because of its degree of latitude turned out as 
illusory as the castles of which he wrote. The castles 
existed only in his imagination; unfortunately, the dead- 
liness of the climate of the spot which he had chosen was 
a stern reality. Induced by his representations, 170 
Switzers accompanied him in 1733 to the site which he 
had selected. These men were from the Protestant can- 
tons of Switzerland, and were Presbyterians and Calvinists 
by profession. But like other foreign Protestants, says 
Dr. Howe, they desired to comply with the established 
religion of the country to which they emigrated, and their, 
minister, the Rev. Joseph Biiginon, who came with them, 
received Episcopal ordination from the Bishop of London. 
On November 16, 1734, another party of 260 came with 
their minister, the Rev. Henry Chiffele, who also received 
ordination from the hands of Dr. Gibson, Bishop of Lon- 
don. One hundred and odd more, says the South Carolina 
G-azette, are expected every day, and among them forty 
Protestants from the valleys of Piedmont. A subscrip- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 127 

tion had been made for them in England, to which the 
Grazette had learned that James Oglethorpe, Esq., had 
subscribed X40 sterling, and also the Due de Montaigu, 
and several other persons of distinction. Colonel Purry, 
the Grazette adds, receives pay for his expenses and Mr. 
Chiffele his expenses out. Again, April 25, 1735, the 
Grazette says 200 Swiss arrived at Purrysburg. They re- 
ceived an allowance by the King out of his own purse of 
XI 200. The Swiss emigrants began their labors with 
uncommon zeal, stimulated with the idea of possessing 
landed estates so far beyond the hopes of European peas- 
antry in their own land. In 1735 Purrj^sburg contained 
nearly one hundred dwellings, and this perhaps, says 
Dr. Howe, was the season of its greatest prosperity.^ 
Hewatt, the historian, thus tells their unhappy story.^ 
On the one hand, the Governor and Council, happy in 
the acquisition of such a force, allotted each of them his 
separate tract of land and gave every encouragement in 
their power to the people. On the other, the poor Swiss 
emigrants began their labors with uncommon zeal and 
courage, highly elated with the idea of possessing landed 
estates, and big with the hopes of future success. In a 
short time, however, they felt the many inconveniences 
attending a change of climate. Several of them sickened 
and died, and others found all the hardships of the first 
state of colonization falling heavily upon them. They 
became discontented with the provisions allowed them, 
and complained to the government of the persons employed 
to distribute them ; and to double their distress the period 
for receiving the bounty expired before they had made 
such progress in cultivation as to raise sufficient provi- 
sions for themselves and families. The spirit of murmur 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 210, 211. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of Sv. Ca., vol. II, 26, 27. 



128 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

crept into the poor Swiss settlement, and the people, find- 
ing themselves oppressed with indigence and distress, 
could consider their situation in no other light than a 
state of banishment, and not only b'lamed Purry for de- 
ceiving them, but also heartily repented leaving their 
native country. 

Violent indeed, says another writer, was the change 
from the mountains of Switzerland to the swamps of the 
lower Savannah ; and the malarial influences engendered 
by a hot sun smiting the marish ground upon which they 
fixed their new abode proved most disastrous to the health 
and comfort of the colonists. For several j^ears did they 
contend manfully against penury and disease, while in- 
dustriously endeavoring to convert the forests into culti- 
vated fields. Many causes conspired to retard the progress 
of the settlement, and soon brought about its almost total 
abandonment. After a comparatively short and precarious 
existence Purrj^sburg became little more than a name — 
scarcely aught else than a frail monument of hope deferred 
and disappointment most severe.^ Fortunately, as we 
shall presently see, all the Swiss did not follow Purry to 
the swamps of the Savannah. 

The first settler in what is now Orangeburg County was 
a trader, Henry Sterling, who had located himself and 
obtained a grant on Lyons Creek in ITOi.^ Then followed 
three or four who located themselves at the Cowpens, 
northwesterly of the low-country white settlers. But it 
was not until 1735 that this portion of the province had 
any considerable number of whites. The arrival of the 
settlers who found their way thitlier is thus mentioned in 
the Soiith Carolina Grazette of July 2Gth of that year. " On 

1 Charles C. Jones, Jr., Memorial by Jean Pierre Purry. 

2 Mills's Statistics of So. Ca., 656; German Settlements, etc., in the 
Carolinas (Bernheim), 99, 100. 



\ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 129 

Sunday last arrived two liimdred Palatines: most of them 
being poor they were obliged to sell themselves and their 
children for their passage (which is six pistoles ^ in gold 
per head) within a fortnight of the time of their arrival 
or else to pay one pistole more to be carried to Philadel- 
phia. The most of them are farmers and some tradesmen. 
About two hundred and twenty of the Switzers that have 
paid all their passage are now going up the Edisto to 
settle a township there. The government defrays them 
on their journey, provides them provisions for one year, 
and gives them fifty acres a head. The quantity of corn 
bought for them has made the price rise from fifteen shil- 
lings, as it was last week, to twenty shillings." 

The Germans — Palatines, as they are styled in the 
quotation from the Gazette — who thus worked their way 
were called Redemptioners, and from them have come some 
of our best citizens. Too poor to pay their passage money, 
they were sold by the captains of the vessels that brought 
them to America to any one who felt inclined to secure 
their labor. The price for which they were sold in Caro- 
lina was usually from £5 to £6 sterling; both men and 
women were thus alike sold to service, and then by hard 
labor, which extended over a period of from three to five 
years, they eventually redeemed themselves from this 
species of servitude.^ 

These German Redemptioners became the first settlers 

1 The pistole averages in value 16 shillings sterling. Curiously, this 
coin is not mentioned in Queen Anne's Proclamation fixing the values of 
coins. Statutes, vol. II, 709. 

2 German Settlement, etc., in the Carolinas (Bernheim), 131. 

On the 7th December, 1734, there appears this notice in the Gazette : 
Just imported and to be sold by Hutchinson & Grimke, Irish servants, 
men and women, of good trades, from North of Ireland, Irish linen, house- 
hold furniture, butter, tea, chinaware, and all sorts of dry goods on 
reasonable terms. 



130 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in Orangeburg township, which had been laid out in a 
parallelogram of fifteen miles by five on the North Edisto, 
and was called Orangeburg in honor of the Prince of 
Orange. Some portion of the settlers were, however, from 
Switzerland, from the cantons of Berne, Zurich, and the 
Orisons, and Dr. Howe accordingly supposes were Cal- 
vinists and Presbyterians in their views of church gov- 
ernment. But this Dr. Benheim, the author of the History 
of the Grerman Settlements and of the Lutheran Church, is 
not disposed to admit. He thinks that though nothing 
is mentioned in the record-book of the church concerning 
their distinctive religious belief, yet the presumptive evi- 
dence even from this source of information is sufficiently 
strong to conclude that the first religious society in Orange- 
burg was a Lutheran church. But whatever their religious 
preference, it was not sufficiently strong to prevent their 
accepting the advantages of the Established Church and 
uniting themselves to it. Their minister, John Ulrich 
Giessendanner, came with them, and the register of mar- 
riages, baptisms, and burials begun by him in the German 
language was continued by his nephew and successor, John 
Giessendanner, 1 down to the year 1760. John Ulrich 
Giessendanner died in the year 1738. His nephew John, 
says Dr. Howe, by the request of the congregation went 
to Charlestown for the purpose of "obtaining orders " from 
the Rev. Alexander Garden, the Bishop of London's com- 
missary, but was persuaded by Major Christian Mote,^ 

1 The nephew's full name was also John Ulrich Giessendanner, but he 
dropped the middle name probably to distinguish him from his uncle, and 
so he is named simply John Giessendanner in all accounts which have 
been left of him. 

2 This name must not be confounded, says Mr. Salley, with that from 
which Fort Motte was derived. This fort was named in honor of Colonel 
Isaac Motte, second in command at the battle of Fort Moultrie, 28th of 
June, 17T6, and his heroic wife, Rebecca. Hist, of Oranyebtirg Cuunty, 24. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 131 

whom he met, that he ought not to apply to him but to 
other gentlemen to whom he would conduct him, who, if 
they found him qualified, would give him authority to 
preach, and that Major Mote introduced him to the Pres- 
bytery of South Carolina, who gave him authority to preach 
the gospel among his German neighbors. This he con- 
tinued to do, and thus kept the church of their fathers 
unchanged for a season, though he afterward went to 
London and took Episcopal ordination. ^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 217. 

Orangeburg is to be congratulated upon the admirable history of that 
county recently published by Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., from which we quote : — 

"About 1780 Moses Thompson with his family and his connections, 
the Maxwells and Powells, moved into Amelia Township from Pennsyl- 
vania. Dr. Joseph Johnson, in his Traditions of the Revolution, says 
that the Thompsons were Irish people from Pennsylvania. A member 
of this family, William Thompson, married Eugenia, daughter of Cap' 
Charles Russell, and John McCord, a member of another of the families 
early settled in this section, married her sister, Sophianista Russell. 
From these three early Orangeburg families, Russells, Thompsons, and 
McCords, descended many people who have become prominent in the 
history of South Carolina. Among these descendants we lind the names 
Thomson, McCord, Heatly, Hart, Taber, Rhett, Haskell, Cheves, Davby, 
Sinkler, Goodwyn, Hayne, Michel, Stuart, and many others equally well 
known." Hist, of Orangeburg, 23, 2-4. 

" Rev. J. U. Giessendanner and his nephew kept a record of the mar- 
riage, baptismal, and burial ceremonies performed by them, and from 
which we are able to learn where many of the settlers came from in the 
Old Country. From Switzerland came Peter Hugg (Canton Berne, 1735), 
Anna, wife of Peter Roth, Rev. John U. Giessendanner and his wife, 
John Giessendanner, Jr., Jacob Giessendanner, Hans Henry Felder (1735), 
Jacob Kuhnen and wife (173G), Ann, wife of Jacob Bossart, Melchoir 
Ott (1735), Anna Negeley, widow, Magdalena, wife of Hans Imdorff, 
Martin Kooner, Peter Moorer, Zibilla Wolf (Grisons), John Friday 
(1735), John Dietrick (1735), Barbara Fund, Henry Wurtzer (1735), 
Henry Horger, Jacob Stauber (Canton Zurich, 1750), Henry Haym, and 
John Myers. From Germany came John George Barr, David Runtge- 
naner, Lewis Linder, and Elias Snell (1785). From Holland came 
William Young. These are all whose places of nativity are given, but it 
is reasonable to presume that the many other settlers bearing the same 



132 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

An Irish colony was induced by the advantages offered 
by the Royal government at the time to embark. On the 
9th of November, 1732, James Pringle and other Irish 
Protestants petitioned the Council that their passage be 
paid. The Council agreed " that if they will settle in a 
Township according to his Majesty's instructions, as the 
Swiss had done, they shall have like encouragement." 
This proposition was accepted, and the township of Will- 
family names as the above came from the same place. Besides the above, 
there are many more names on the Giesseudanner record that are un- 
mistakably German, among them the names, Stroman, Stoudennyer, 
Shauinloffe!, Geiger, Holman, Hessy, Kuhn, Yutsey (Utsey), Yssenhut 
(Whisenhunt), Kreyter (Crider), Iluber, Shuler, Runiph, Zimmerman, 
Rickenbocker, Kohler (Culler), HungerbuUer (Hungerpiller), Wanna- 
maker, Amaker, Keller, Inabinet, Zeigler, Leysaht, Golson, Joyner, 
Ferstner, Tilly, Harlzog, Whetstone (?), Balziger, Brunzon, Stehely 
(Staley), Starekey (Sturkie), and Theus,— names nearly all which obtain 
in this section to-day." Hist, of Orangeburg (Salley), 31, 32. 

Among other families of German descent in Orangeburg are the Dantz- 
lers, Keitts, Rumphs, Wannamakers, Kitchirs, Zorns, Gregelmans, Gall- 
mans, Jubbs, Tehudy (Judy), Ernst, Hottow (Ilutto), Eberhardt, Wolf 
(Wolfe). Of the early settlers William Barrie, -Christopher Henry, and 
Samuel Rowes, Donald Govan, and Gavin Pon were of Scotland, Seth 
Hatcher was a native of Virginia. The Larry or Larey family, frequently 
mentioned, was Irish. 

The' German emigrants pressed up the Congaree, and many of them 
almost in a body settled in the Fork between Broad and Saluda rivers. 
Among these were the Summers, Mayers, Ruffs, Eiglebergers, Counts, 
Slighs, Piesters, Grays, De Walts, Boozers, Buzzards, Shelays, Beden- 
baughs, Cromers, Berleys, Hellers, Koons, Wingards, Subers, Folks, 
Dickerts, Cappelmans, Halfacres, Chapmans, Blacks, Kinards, Bonknights, 
Barrs, Harmons, Bowers, Kiblers, Galhnans, Levers, Hartmans, Fricks, 
Stoudemoyers, Dominicks, Singleys, Bulows, Paysingers, Wallerns, 
Staleys, Kidhhoovers, Lilbrands, Leapharts, Hopes, Houseals, Bernhards, 
Shulers, Haltiwangers, Swigarts, Meetzes, Shumperts, Frulmores, Living- 
stones, Schmitz, Eleazers, Drehrs, Loricks, Wises, Crotwells, Young- 
eners, Nunamakers, Souters, Eptings, and Huffmans. (O'Neall's Aiinals 
of Newberry, 22, 23.) Many of these names are still to be found in 
Orangeburg County and Lexington County, formerly Amelia Township 
and Saxe Gotha. 



UNDER THE ROYAL, GOVERNMENT 133 

iamsburg, laid out the year before on the Black River, 
was assigned to this colony. This township was so named 
in honor of William III, Prince of Orange. It included 
an area of twenty miles square, and was granted to these 
Irish Presbyterians with the full guaranty of enjoyment 
of their own faith without intrusion. It never became a 
parish of the Church of England. 

Notwithstanding the bounty of the Crown, these emi- 
grants also suffered very severely, though not to so great 
an extent as the Swiss under Purry. Many of them died 
from the effects of the climate and the want of proper 
precautions. Debilitated in body and dejected in mind 
through want of proper food and by their heavy labor, 
numbers of them sickened and died in the woods. But 
as the township continued to receive accessions from the 
same people, the Irish settlement, amidst every hardship, 
increased in numbers, and having at length applied to the 
merchants for negroes upon credit, and being intrusted 
with a few, they were relieved from the severest part of 
their labor. Then by their great diligence and industry 
spots of land were gradually cleared, which began to yield 
them provisions, and in process of time became prosper- 
ous and fruitful estates. 

Among those who then came out to this colony were the 
Witherspoon family, whose descendants are now found in 
almost every part of the State. Some of the family came 
over in the first emigration of 1732, but John, the ancestor 
of all now living, emigrated with his family in 1734. 
The family had migrated from Glasgow, Scotland, to the 
county of Down in Ireland in 1695, and thence came to 
Carolina. 1 A letter written by Robert, the son of John, 
like that written by Judith Maingault fifty years before, 

1 Accompanying John Witherspoon were his sons David, James, 
Robert, and Gavin, and his daugliters Jennett, Elizabeth, and Mary, and 



134 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAKOLINA 

gives a touching account of the hardships encountered by 
tlie early settlers in the unbroken forests. After their 
long, tedious, and dangerous voyage across, they landed in 
Charlestown three weeks before Christmas. They found 
the inhabitants very kind, and stayed in the town until 
after Christmas, when they were put on board an open 
boat, a sloop, with tools and a year's provisions and one 
still mill. Each hand was allowed one axe, one broad and 
one narrow hoe. Their provisions were Indian corn, rice, 
wheaten flour, beef, pork, rum, and salt. As it was the 
dead of winter they were exposed to the inclemency of 
the weather day and night. They must have gone by sea 
to Georgetown harbor, for they went in the sloop up the 
Black River as far as Potatoe Ferry, which is just upon 
the line between the present counties of Williamsburg and 
Georgetown. There they turned on shore, where they lay 
in a barn, while the boat with the goods and provisions 
wrought her way up to "the King's Tree." In the Royal 
grants of land in Carolina the King reserved for his own use 
all the white pine trees and one-tenth of all the gold and 
silver mines. One of these trees grew nearly at the head of 
navigation of the Black River, the spot selected for the set- 
tlement, from which circumstances it was known as King's 
Tree, which name it still preserves as the county seat. 

Mr. Witherspoon's letter gives a most interesting and 
pathetic account of the difficulties and trials of the new 
settlers in a strange land. He tells of the disappointment 

their husbands Jolin Fleming, William James, and David Wilson. The 
names of the other colonists, as far as they can now be ascertained, were 
James McClelland, William Sym, David Allan, William AVilson, Kobert 
Wilson, James Bradley, William Frierson, John James, W'illiam Hamil- 
ton, Archibald Hamilton, Koger Gordon, John Porter, John Lemon, 
David Pnvssley, William I'ressley. Archibald McRae, James Armstrong ; 
others of the names of Ewin, I'lowden, Stuart, and iMcDonald. Hist, of 
Williamsburg Church. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 135 

of his mother and the family when they came to the Bluff 
in expectation of finding an agreeable place, but finding 
nothing but a wilderness; and how their spirits sank 
when, instead of a fine-timbered house, they had nothing 
but a mean dirt house. How their father endeavored to 
comfort and encourage them. Then their fire gave out, 
and the trouble they had in getting more; the howling 
of wild beasts, the thunderstorm in midwinter, and their 
misery under it. Yet unlike the unfortunate Swiss at 
Purrysburg, the people continued strong and healthy, and 
diligently continued clearing and planting as long as the 
season would permit, and made provision for the ensuing 
year. Others, however, coming later, and travelling over- 
land in the warm season, were much fatigued; many were 
taken with the fever and ague, and some died. He tells 
of his grandfather's death. How that in the fall of 1737 
he " took the rose in his leg " (erysipelas), which occa- 
sioned a fever of which he died, and thus describes him. 
" He was a man of middle stature, of firm, healthy con- 
stitution, well acquainted with the scripture, and had 
volubility of expression in prayer. A zealous adherent 
of the reformed Protestant principles of the Church of 
Scotland, he had a great aversion against Episcopacy. 
And whoever reads the history of the times of his younger 
years in Scotland may see that these prejudices were not 
without cause, as it was his lot to be in a time of great 
distress to the poor persecuted church in the reign of 
James VII of Scotland (?) and II of England, as he was 
one of the sort that followed field meetings — some of his 
kindred and himself were much harassed by them. Yet 
notwithstanding if his younger days were attended with 
some trouble, he enjoyed great peace and tranquillity in 
his afterlife."! 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 212, 215. 



136 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The inducements held out in connection with the la3ang 
out these townships led to a visit of some Welch from 
Pennsylvania in the latter part of 1735. They asked the 
government that an extensive tract of land might be ap- 
propriated for their sole benefit for a certain period, and 
accordingly a precept was directed to John Ouldfield, 
bearing date November, 1736, to admeasure and lay out 
for the Welch families that were to be imported a tract 
of land containing in the whole 173,850 acres in Craven 
County, 10,000 of which to be within the limits of Queens- 
boro, which township had been laid out on the Great Pee 
Dee, a short distance above the mouth of the Little Pee 
Dee River. 1 The survey was made, the tract extending up 
the Pee Dee River, and was known as the " Welch Tract." 

With such inducements to immigrate, the Welch were 
not slow in making their way to the province. In 1736 a 
company of them settled on Catfish stream — a stream 
in what is now Marion County. They remained there 
but a short time, and then removed higher up to that rich 
and compact body of land embraced in the bend of the 
river opposite to the village of Society Hill, and called 
from an early period the "Welch Neck." By the latter 
part of 1737 most of the families from Pennsylvania had 
arrived, and the infant colony began to assume an organ- 
ized and permanent character. Under its leader, James 
James, Esq., were laid the foundations of future growth 
and prosperity. From these emigrants have descended 
many of the most distinguished men of the State. ^ 

^ Gregg's Hist, of the " Old Chei-mos,''^ 47. 

^ Ibid., chap. TIT. 

In 1737, says Bishop Gregg, a respectable portion of the colony con- 
sisted of the following persons : James James and wife, Philip James and 
wife, Daniel Devonald and wife, Abel James and wife, Daniel James and 
wife, Thomas Evans and wife, .John Jones and wife, Thomas Harry 
and wife, Daniel Harry and wife, John Harry and wife, Samuel Wild and 



i 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 137 

Thoagh it somewhat anticipates the current of events, 
it may be as well to mention here another source of popula- 
tion of this part of the province. The battle of Culloden, 
in April, 1746, led to the removal of many families from 
Scotland to America, and inducements were held out to 
these to come to South Carolina. The "High Hills of 
Santee," as the rolling lands between Lynche's Creek and 
the Wateree, in what is now Sumter County, were called, 
were set aside for them; but these exiles were drawn by 
contrary winds into the Cape Fear, and thence a part of 
them crossed and settled higher up in what is now Dar- 
lington County, the rest taking up their abode in North 
Carolina. Of these are the families of Mclver, Mcintosh, 
McCall, Cusac, etc. The High Hills of Santee were 
granted to emigrants from Virginia, who about the same 
time came down into the province.^ 

In the first settlements in that part of the State, known 
as the Pee Dee section, various types of race and character 

■wife, Samuel Evans and wife, Griffith Jones and wife, David Jones and 
wife, Thomas Jones and wife. Other names, which appear at the same 
time, were Thomas James, Giifith John, William James, John Newberry, 
Evan Harry, Henry Oldacre, Hasker Newberry, William Eynon, James 
Roger, David James, Daniel Donsnal, Samuel Sarance (Sorrency and De 
Sorrency), as it was sometimes written, Evan Vaughn, William Tarell (or 
Terrell), Jacob Buckholt, Jeremiah Fickling, Richard Thompson, Joseph 
Jolly, John Jones, Richard Barrow, Thomas Walley, Sampson Thomas, 
Jacob Buckles, Peter Kisley, John Evans, Jeremiah Rowell, James Row- 
land, John Westfield, Thomas Elleby (Ellerby), Simon Parsons, John 
Carter, Job Edwards, Philip Douglass, William Carey, David Malahan, 
Thomas Moses, and Nicholas Rogers. Gregg's Hist, of the " Old Cher- 
rtics," 52, 54, 56, 57. The Rev. Timothy Dargan, the ancestor of the dis- 
tinguished family of that name, did not settle in this neighborhood until 
later. Ibid., 440. Among the prominent and influential families, which 
were founded by these people, were the James, Evans, Rogers, Rogersons, 
Eilerbys, Pughs, Lides, Kollocks, Harringtons, Kolbs, Pegues, Pawleys, 
and Powells. Tiie Greggs were from Scotland and settled there in 1752. 
1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 262. 



138 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



were represented. France, England, Wales, Ireland, Scot 
land, Germany, and the northern provinces of America, 
whose inhabitants had been chiefly drawn from the same 
sources, all contributed in a measure ; the Welch element 
predominating in the central locality was destined, how- 
ever, to give character to the communities around it.^ 

From time to time the existing parishes were subdi- 
vided, and the townships as they were settled became 
parishes. In 1721 the settlement at Winyaw, which had 
been attached, as we have seen, to St. James '.s, San tee, was 
declared to be a distinct parish by itself, to be called 
Prince George in honor of the then Prince of Wales, after- 
ward George II. ^ In 1734 John's Island, Wadraalaw 
Island, and Edisto Island were taken from St. Paul's, 
Colleton, and declared to be a parish, to be called St. 
John's Parish in Colleton County; and Prince George, 
Winyaw, was again subdivided, the new parish to be called 
Prince Frederick. ^ In 1746 St. Helena was subdivided, 
and the new parish was named Prince William,* then the 
township of Purrysburg, in 1746, was set up as St. Peter's 
Parish,^ and Charlestown was divided into two parishes in 
1751, the new parish to be called St. Michael's.^ In 1754 
St. James's was divided, and the new parish was called 
St. Stephens's;'^ and in 1757 another parish was laid out 
in Craven County, to be called St. Mark's.^ In 1767 a 
new parish was laid out in Granville County, to be called 
"St. Luke's," and another in Craven, to be called "All 
Saint's,"^ and the next year St. Matthew's was erected 
from Orangeburg and Amelia townships. ^^ In 1768 the 
Welch settlement was made into a parish called St. 
David's, in honor of the patron saint of Wales, ^^ and 

1 South Carolina's Besources, etc., 611. » Ibid., 374. ^ Ibid, 668. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 171. * Ibid., 658. « /^^v?., 753. 

7 ibid., vol. IV, 8. « Ibid., S6. ^ Ibid., 266. ^<^ Ibid., 298. ^Ubid., 300. 



^ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 139 

ten years later part of Orangeburg was cut off and made 
the parish of Orange.^ The low and middle country- 
was thus all divided into parishes, from which members 
of the House of Commons were elected as apportioned 
by the various acts established therein. 

For military purposes the province appears to have been 
divided for some time anterior to the Revolution into 
seven militia districts, — Charlestown, Beaufort, George- 
town, Orangeburg, Cheraws, Camden, and Ninety-six, — 
but no statute doing so can be found. The parts of the 
province included in the three last districts, with the ex- 
ception of St. David's in the Cheraws, not having been 
organized into parishes, the territory embraced was gener- 
ally known and distinguished by the names of the " Camden 
District," "Old Cheraws," and "Ninety-six. "2 

It was about this time that the third town in the prov- 
ince, Georgetown, began to be settled. There has been 
some difference of opinion as to the time of the beginning 
of this town. Mills states that the town was laid out by 
the Rev. William Screven, who died in 1713,^ and he has 
been followed in this statement by others.* But the town 
was not laid out until shortly before 1734. The land for the 
site of the town, 274 acres, was by deeds of lease and re- 
lease, dated 14th and 15th of January, 1734, conveyed by 
the Rev. Elisha Screven, son of the Rev. William Screven, 
to George Pawley, William Swinton, and Daniel La Roche, 
in trust for the purpose of laying out a town according to a 
plan attached to the deeds. The deeds are still on record.^ 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 408. 

2 See Map Appendix to Formation of Judicial Subdivision in So. Ca. 
by John P. Thomas, Jr. ; Extracts from the Transactions of the Fifth 
Annual Meeting of the So. Ca. Bar Ass., 1889 ; Frontispiece to this volume. 

8 Mills's Statistics, 556. 

* Am. Hist. Review, vol. Ill, No. .S, 549 (Whitney). 

* Miscellaneous Becords, 1751-54, Probate Office, Charleston. 



140 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

There was some dispute as to the title to this land and 
other tracts, the heirs of John Perry, formerly of Barba- 
does, claiming under a grant prior to that to the Rev. 
William Screven; but this was settled by a division, in 
the deeds for which, executed in 1737, it is stipulated 
that the provisions should not extend or comprehend any 
})art of the lands " included within the limits and bounds 
of either the town or commons of Georgetown in the 
parish of Prince George, Winyaw, &ct as the said town 
and commons were heretofore laid out and granted by the 
said Elisha Screven to George Pawley, William SAvinton, 
and Daniel La Roche by certain deeds of lease and release 
bearing date respectively the fourteenth and fifteenth days 
of January, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-four." ^ 
It is probable, however, that Elislia Screven had laid out 
the town and given it the name of Georgetown some time 
before the actual execution of his deed to the trustees ; for 
by an act of June 7, 1733, the year before, a road is laid 
out to Mr. Robert Screven's plantation ^^ opposite George- 
town.^^^ But this had not been done in August, 1731, for 
by an act of the 20th of that month a ferry is established 
"from the bluff of Mr. Elisha Screven'' s plantation to the 
marsh point of the plantation of Capt. Robert Screven. "^ 
The land opposite Captain Robert Screven's plantation was 
the site of the town. The town was projected, we may con- 
clude therefore, some time between 1731 and 1734; but the 
land was not granted for the purpose until 1734. The next 
year, 1735, George Pawley, William Swinton, Daniel La 
Roche, and two others were appointed Harbor Commission- 
ers to lay out buoys, erect beacons, and regulate pilotage.* 
Several families which were to become famous, and 

1 Deeds recorded in Office of Register of Mesne Conveyances, Charles- 
ton, Book G, 262, 275. 3 //^y/.^ vol. IX, 69, 70. 

2 Statutes of So. Cn., vol. Ill, 362. * Ibid., vol. Ill, 406. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 141 

whose names are woven into the history of the province 
and State of South Carolina, make their appearance co- 
temporaneously with the establishment of the Royal 
government. 

Dr. John Moultrie, descended from an ancient Scottish 
family possessed of landed estates known as Roscobie, be- 
tween Lochlevin and Damferliue, was educated at Edin- 
burgh and emigrated to Charlestown about 1728. The 
emigrant was the ancestor of the Moultrie family, and the 
father of four sons : Dr. John Moultrie, who in the Revo- 
lution adhered to his King's cause, and became Lieutenant 
Governor of Florida; General William Moultrie, the hero 
of the battle of the 28th of June, 1776; Captain Thomas 
Moultrie, who was killed at the siege of Charlestown in 
1780; and Alexander Moultrie, who was Attorney General 
under the Constitution of 1776.^ 

Andrew Rutledge, the founder of the distinguished 
family of Rutledges in South Carolina, came to the prov- 
ince from Ireland in 1730, and establishing himself here 
he sent for his brother John, who came out in 1735. 
Andrew Rutledge was a lawyer, and rose to distinction, 
becoming Attorney (jeneral of the province and Speaker 
of the Commons. He married a widow, Mrs. Hext, but 
died in 1755 without leaving issue. His brother John was 
a physician, and married Miss Hext, the daughter of his 
brother's wife. From this union came five sons, three of 
whom, John, Hugh, and Edward, became famous in the 
history of the State. The fourth son, Andrew, was a 
merchant, who died in 1772 without issue. The fifth, 
Thomas, also attained some position in the colony, be- 
coming an officer during the Revolution, but he too died 
without issue. 

1 Address of Gen. Wilmot G. De Saussure, President Cincinnati Society, 
1885. 



142 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The founder of the De Saussure family was Antoine de 
Saussure, who lived in the sixteenth century in Lorraine. 
The family name is derived from the borough of Saussure, 
formerly in their possession. The father of Antoine was 
Mongin de Saussure, Lord of Dommartin and Monteuil, 
Counsellor of State and Grand Falconer under the Duke 
of Lorraine. Anthony embraced the reformed religion 
and abandoned Lorraine in 1551. He was one of the chief 
instruments in the establishment of Protestantism in Metz, 
Strasburg, and Neufchatel, where he successively resided. 
He lived for some time in Geneva, where he was on in- 
timate terms with Calvin. Jean Louis de Saussure per- 
formed gallant service in 1712 in the battles of Bremgarten 
and Wilmergen, and the State of Berne erected his estate 
into a barony and conferred on him the title of nolle and 
generous. Henry de Saussure of Lausanne in France, no 
doubt led here by the representations of Purry, emigrated 
to Carolina in 1731, and settled near Coosawhatchie, 
Avhere he lived and died and his monument is still found. 
Daniel de Saussure was born at Pocotoligo and removed 
to the town of Beaufort in 1767, where he conducted the 
largest commercial establishment in the province out of 
Charlestown. He bore arms at the siege of Charlestown, 
and was one of the exiles sent to St. Augustine by the 
British authorities upon the fall of the town. Two brothers 
fell during the struggle. Upon the exchange of prisoners 
Daniel de Saussure Avas sent from St. Augustine to Phila- 
delphia, where he received an appointment in the Bank 
of Robert Morris.. He was afterward President of the 
Bank of the United States in Charleston until his death. 
His eldest son, the Hon. Henry William de Saussure, was 
tlie distinguished Chancellor, and is said to have been the 
father of equity in South Carolina. ^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 400, 401. 



CHAPTER IX 

1732-34 

The commercial importance of the colon}' now greatly 
increased. The merchants of London, Bristol, and Liver- 
pool turned their eyes to Carolina as a new and promising 
place of trade, and established houses in Charlestown for 
conducting their business with the planters. They poured 
in slaves for cultivating their lands, manufactures for 
supplying their plantations, and furnished them with both 
on credit at a cheap rate. The number of vessels which 
had entered the port in 1724 was 134; in 1735 the num- 
ber was 248. The number of negroes imported in 1724 
was 439; in 1735 it was 2907; and during the ten years 
between those dates the number imported amounted to 
17,665. The number of barrels of rice exported in 1724 
was 17,734. In the year from the 1st of November, 1735, 
to the 1st of November, 1736, it was 52,349 barrels and 
1554 bags, of which about one-fifth, 11,014 barrels and 
1208 bags, were shipped to the newly opened ports south- 
ward of Cape Finisterre, in twenty-three vessels. ^ With 
the increased force the lands were cleared and cultivated 
with greater facility, and rose in value. Men of foresight 
and judgment began to look about and secure rich lands 
for themselves. Until this time small progress had been 
made in cultivation except in the rice fields in the inland 
swamps. The colonists, says Ramsay, were slovenly 
farmers, owing to the vast quantities and the ease and 

1 Appendix to Bpport of Committee on the State of the Paper Currency, 
1737. Tables, pp. 9-10. 

143 



144 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

cheap terms of obtaining lands. They had an abundance 
of the necessaries and some of the conveniences of life; 
but their habitations were generally small wooden build- 
ings hastily and roughly built. Charlestown at this time 
consisted of between five hundred and six hundred houses, 
mostly built of timber, neither comfortable nor well con- 
structed. From tliis time great improvement was made 
in building as well as in other respects. Artificers and 
tradesmen of different kinds found encouragement in it 
and introduced a taste for brick buildings and better 
houses. The whole face of the country began to exhibit 
the appearance of industry and plenty.^ 

The printing press and newsiDaper were contemporaneous 
with the Royal government in South Carolina. The Avant 
of a printing press had been particularly felt, when, in 1712, 
the Assembly desired to have the codification of the laws 
by Chief Justice Trott printed, and were obliged to order 
the work transmitted either to London, Boston, or New 
York for the purpose.^ The work had not, however, been 
sent at the time, owing, no doubt, to the low state of the 
public treasury and the troubles of the Indian war that 
followed. Then the subject had become involved with 
Trott's unpopularity, and the work was treated as if its 
publication was a personal matter relating only to him, in 
which the public had no interest, and was apparently 
abandoned. " To procure by the first opportunity a Printer 
with his tools to be sent to this Province" was, however, 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 104, 107. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 522. The first print- 
ing press in America was that erected in Massachusetts nearly a hundred 
years before, i.e. 1638 (or 1(539 ?). Presses were established in the other 
colonies as follows: Pennsylvania, 1087, New York, 1693, Connecticut, 
1709, Maryland, 1726, Virginia, 1729, South Carolina, 1730, Rhode 
Island, 1732, New Jersey, 1752, North Carolina, 1755, New Hampshire, 
1756, Georgia, 1762. Thomas's Hist, of Printing, vol. I, 149, 150, 221. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 145 

one of the subjects of instruction to Francis Yonge when 
he was sent as the colony's agent to England in 1722. 
He was charged to find some sober, able person who should 
be a printer and bookbinder, who would come over to the 
province and bring with him a plain, handsome set of 
letters, with a press, tools, paper, and other necessaries. 
If the printer required any money to be advanced in order 
to buy himself what was necessary and for transporting 
himself, Mr. Yonge was authorized to advance him a sum 
not exceednig £1000 currency, to be repaid by the printer 
by printing all such papers as might be required of him 
until he worked out the debt ; the printer was to be 
allowed twenty-five per cent advance upon the usual price 
given in Great Britain for such work as he might be given 
here, and he was to have all the business of the public. 
Mr. Yonge did not succeed in obtaining a printer, and in 
January, 1723-24, the Assembly instructed Colonel Parris, 
the public Treasurer, to lay out XIOOO in rice, to be 
shi2)ped to Mr. Wragg, then living as a merchant in Lon- 
don, whose assistance was asked for Mr. Yonge in obtain- 
ing, with the money for the rice to be consigned to Mr. 
Wragg, the much-desired printer with his " plain, handsome 
set of letters." Mr. Wragg was not more successful, and 
no wonder, for in June in the same year Governor Nichol- 
son, who, however zealous in regard to education, about the 
matter of printing, it seems, was not unlike Sir William 
Berkeley, the former Governor of Virginia and Proprietor 
of the province, who, it will be remembered, thanked God 
that in his time there were no free schools nor printing in 
his territory, said to the Assembly : " I suppose by the 
account of Mr. Yonge sent you it may be seen how very 
chargea])le it is to have a printer to come hither, and if any 
should I can't suffer him to exercise his trade without his 
giving very good security not to print anything without 

VOL. 11 L 



146 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

license. And I can't give him any for printing the body 
of the laws (those compiled by Trott) till his Majesty's 
will and pleasure be known therein, so that in my opinion 
the money appropriated for a printer may be disposed of 
for the good of his Majesty's Province." ^ Mr. Middleton, 
while administering the government, was not more liberal. 
He writes to Governor Nicholson, then in England, May 4, 
1727, that he will never give in to "Mr. Trott's unrea- 
sonable proposal to print our laws."^ Fortunately, more 
enlightened views were taken of tlie matter upon the 
establishment of the permanent Royal government, as we 
see by a message sent by the Council to the Lower House 
on the 21st of May, 1730, informing that body " that His 
Majesty, out of his great goodness to this Province, will 
be pleased to print our laws at his own charge, and send 
over as many copies as may be necessary," and recommend- 
ing that a copy might be provided of such laws as were 
necessary to be printed, and sent to Great Britain as soon 
as possible. 3 Instead of this, however, a printer came to 
Charlestown, sent, probably, by his Majesty's government. 
Eleazar Phillips, a native of Boston, the son of Eleazar 
Phillips, a bookseller and binder who lived at Charlestown, 
near Boston, arrived in Carolina, opened a printing house, 
in 1730, in the town, and executed the printing of the 
colony. His career was but brief. He died among the 
first cases of the fatal epidemic of yellow fever in 1731. 
That he had come out at the instance of the Royal gov- 
ernment is rendered probable by the inscription on his 
tomb, which is, " He was the first Printer to his Majesty."* 

1 Commons Journal ; Introduction of Printing in So. Ca. ; Russell's 
Magazine, vol. I, 512 (Professor W. J. Rivers). 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 243. 

8 Council Journals; The Neivspaper Press of Charleston (King), 10. 
* Thomas's Hist, of Printing, vol. II, 154. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 147 

The first newspaper published in South Carolina made 
its appearance in Charlestown January 8, 1731-32.1 It 
bears the title of The South Carolina Grazette, " contain- 
ing the freshest Advices Foreign and Domestick." It 
was published on Saturdays through that year and 
until September 8, 1733, when its discontinuance was 
caused by the death of the publisher. He, too, died of 
yellow fever. The publication was resumed on the 2d 
of February, 1733-34, by Lewis Timothy, and continued by 
him until his death in 1738. It was then continued by 
his widow with the aid of her son, Peter Timothy, for a 
short time. Lewis Timothy was a French refugee to 
Holland, and thence came to Charlestown. He first signed 
his name Louis Timothee, but from April 6, 1734, angli- 
cized it to Lewis Timothy. 

The history of this paper is remarkable ; its influence 
during the whole of the Royal government, and especially 
during the excitement over the Stamp act and non-importa- 
tion agreement, the Wilkes fund, and then in the movement 
which led to the Revolution, was great. Peter Timothy 
was a man of great force, and his paper was always on the 
side of freedom and liberty. He was a violent Whig and 
a correspondent of John Adams. He carried on the 
publication of the Gazette continuously as publisher or 
proprietor until 1775. It was suspended then until 1777, 
when it was again published by him, until the fall of 
Charlestown in 1780, under the modified title of The 

' There had been nine newspapers published in the colonies before the 
publication of the So. Ca. Gazette, to wit : tlie Boston News Letter, 1704, 
the Boston Gazette, 1719, tlie ^meWcara Weekly 3Iercury, of Philadelphia, 
1719, the New England Courant, Boston, 1721, the New York Gazette, 
1725, the New England Weekly Journal, Boston, 1727, the Maryland 
Gazette, 1727, the Universal Instructor, etc., & Pennsylvania Gazette, 
1728, the Weekly Rehearsal, Boston, 1731. Thomas's Hist, of Printing, 
vol. II, 191-306. 



148 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Grazette of the State of South Carolina. Upon the restora- 
tion of the city, Peter Timothy having been lost at sea on his 
way from Phihidelphia where he had been sent as a prisoner 
of war, his widow revived the paper and pnblished it until 
1792, when it was carried on by his son Benjamin Franklin 
Timothy, by himself first and tlien with a partner until 
1800. Peter Timothy Marchant, great grandson of Lewis 
Timothy and grandson of Peter, was one of the members 
of the house of Marchant, Willington & Co., publishers 
of the Charleston Courier founded in 1802, ^ of which the 
present ably edited Neivs and Courier of Charleston is the 
successor. This last journal can therefore trace back its 
editorial lineage pretty clearly to The South Carolina 
Gazette founded by Thomas Whitemarsh, in January, 
1732. 

His Excellency Governor Johnson was specially in- 
structed by his Majesty to put a stop to the system of 
large grants of land, and to deny grants to any but those 
who proposed to settle and improve the lands themselves. 
The great increase in the value of land, owing to the 
ninnber of negroes imported, and the success in rice 
planting, led to speculation and the efforts to secure 
grants of land for the purpose. This gave rise to a most 
interesting question involving a struggle between the 
Governor's Council and Commons on the one side, and 
the Chief Justice of the colony and the lawyers on the 
other. 

It is difficult for one born and bred anywhere in British 
dominions or in this country to realize that the principles 

1 Thomas's Hist, of Printing, vol. IT, 366, 371. The files of these 
papers, and of all otliers published in Charleston, with but few and unim- 
portant breaks, are to be found in the Charleston Library, thus presenting 
a complete journalistic liistory of the province and State for one hundred 
and sixty-six years. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 149 

of liberty which he now enjoys are not axiomatic in 
their very nature, and as common as the air he breathes. 
So true is this that we are, indeed, in many instances 
unconscious ahnost of their existence, until in some way 
they are rudely questioned. And yet the history of 
the English people is but the record of the struggles 
through which these principles have been evolved and 
established in pain and travail — and in many cases 
almost unconsciously. We tliink and speak of Magna 
Carta as the great chart, and the patent of our rights and 
liberties, as if these all originated and flowed from that 
celebrated instrument. But great as it was. Magna Carta 
was but a recognition and admission — forced, it is true, 
from King John — of the results up to that time of 
the ceaseless movements of the forces in the development 
of freedom. The great underlying principles which had 
been at work from the time of the Conquest were then 
recognized ; but their development and application to 
the different functions of government were yet to be 
made. The separatfon and limitation of the powers of 
the legislative, executive, and judicial departments, the 
essential feature of Anglo-Saxon government, was not a 
matter wliich owes its existence to the nature of things, 
but was one of slow and gradual development and growth. 
Thus the application of the Habeas Corpus act was met 
with vigorous resistance by each of the two Houses of 
Parliament, when arrests and commitments by either of 
them for what cause soever were questioned by the judi- 
ciary. A great controversy now took place in South 
Carolina upon this subject. 

On the 2d of February, 1732, Governor Johnson and his 
Council issued a proclaraation,^ reciting his Majesty's in- 
struction that to prevent the inconveniences of granting 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, February 3, 1732-33. 



150 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

excessive quantities of land to people not likely to cultivate 
and improve them, his Excellency was esj^ecially charged 
to take particular care that no grants be made to any per- 
son, but in proportion to his ability to cultivate the land 
granted, by which the Council considered that it was clear 
his Majesty had left the Governor and Council to judge 
whether the grantees were able or intended to cultivate 
the land for which they applied. Acting upon this the 
Governor and Council held that it was manifest that any 
one who had contracted to sell the land for which he made 
application, had no intention himself to settle and culti- 
vate it, and therefore gave public notice that no grants 
should be given for any land not yet recorded in the 
Secretary's office, but to such person as should first come 
and make oath before tlie Council that the land was asked 
for actually and bona fide for his own use, without any 
design or present view of selling or disposing of it. It 
will be remembered that one of the last acts of the Pro- 
prietors — an act which had much to do with the overthrow 
of their government — was the appropriation to their own 
use of the territory the colonists had recovered from the 
Yamassees.^ However unjust and impolitic this course 
had been, the Proprietors' legal right to these lands was 
just as good as tliat to any other part of the territory 
covered by their grant under the charter, which was un- 
questioned. Acting upon their undoubted rights they had 
before their surrender granted large tracts, baronies and 
manors, to their favorites and others. One of the first 
measures of Governor Johnson's administration had been 
the Quit-rent act, as it was called, one of the provisions 
of which required that all persons who held or claimed 
lands by virtue of patent or grant from the Lords Proprie- 
tors or their Governors should within eighteen months 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 555, 642. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 151 

after the act register their grants or memorials of them, 
and lands not so registered were declared to be vacant 
and open to any person who might apply for them as 
required. This act was passed the 20th of August, 
1731.1 Before the expiration of the prescribed period the 
case occurred which gave rise to the struggle between 
the Commons' House and the Chief Justice and the 
lawyers. 

He watt's account of this controversy is that the old 
planters, now acquiring every year greater strength by the 
large importation of negroes and extensive credit from 
England, began to turn their attention more closely than 
ever to the lands of the province ; that a spirit of emula- 
tion broke out among them for securing tracts of the 
richest soil, especially such as were most conveniently 
situated for navigation ; that complaints were made to 
the Assembly that all lands on navigable rivers and creeks 
adjacent to Port Royal had been run out in exorbitant 
tracts under color of patents granted by the Proprietors to 
Caciques and Landgraves by which the complainants, who 
had at the hazard of their lives defended the country, were 
hindered from obtaining such lands as could be useful 
and beneficial at the established quit-rents, though the 
Attorney and Solicitor General of England had declared 
such patents void. He sees nothing in the controversy 
which arose but an unscrupulous effort on the part of 
the planters to obtain improper grants of land ; he inti- 
mates no doubt as to the right or propriety of the action 
of the Commons, however arbitrary, in resisting this 
attempt. 2 But the case was a very different one. 

The issue arose in this way : Some thirty-nine inhabit- 
ants of Granville County presented a petition against Job 

1 Statutrs nf So. Cn., vol. Ill, '200, 202. 

2 Hewatt's, Hist, of So. Cu., vol. II, 28. 



152 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Rothmaller, charging him with having run out lands ille- 
gally. The Commons' House of Assembly looked into the 
matter, and witliout giving the parties a hearing at once 
ordered Rothmaller and Dr. Thomas Cooper, a deputy 
surveyor who had surveyed the lands for Rothmaller, into 
the custody of the messenger. ^ Upon their arrest, Dr. 
Cooper at once sued out a writ of habeas corpus for his 
own liberation, and brought an action for damages against 
John Brown, the messenger of the House. Mr. Vaughn, 
a member of the bar, represented. Dr. Cooper in the habeas 
corpus proceedings ; Mr. Graeme apparently represented 
him in the suit for damages. The Chief Justice, Robert 
Wright, granted the writ of habeas corpus without hesita- 
tion, and a writ bearing his signature was issued out of 
the clerk's office in the damage suit. At this the Com- 
mons took great offence and ordered Mr. Vaughn, and Mr. 
Graeme likewise, into custody of the messenger. On the 
7th of April, 1733, the House passed a series of resolutions, 
in which they declared that it was the undeniable privilege 
of the Commons' House of Assembly to commit into the 
custody of their messenger any such persons as they might 
judge to deserve to be so committed ; that the freedom of 
speech and debate or proceedings of the House ought not 
to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of 
this House ; that it was a great contempt and violation of 
the privileges of the House for any one whatever to im- 
peach or call in question any commitments of the Commons' 
House of Assembly ; and that no writ of habeas corpus has 
been or ought to be granted in favor of any persons com- 
mitted by this House during the sitting of the same; that 
any proceedings by writ of habeas corpus, or in any other 
manner but in this Assembly, were an express contradiction 

1 The officer of the House then known as the messenger is the same as 
the sergeant-at-arnis of the present legishitive bodies in this country. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 153 

of the Declaration of Rights (1 WilL and Mary, chap. II) 
which says : that the freedom of speech and debate or 
proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or 
questioned in any court or place out of Parliament ; that 
no person committed by the House for breach of privilege 
or contempt of the House ought to be by any writ of 
habeas corpus made to appear in any other place or before 
any other judicature during that session of Assembly 
wherein such person was committed ; that the messenger 
of tlie House do make no return or yield any obedience to 
the writ of habeas covpus^ and for such his refusal he should 
have the protection of the House ; that the Chief Justice 
should be made acquainted with these resolutions, to the 
end that the writ might be suspended as contrary to the 
law and the privilege of the House, 

Upon this action by the House the persons arrested 
applied for relief by petition to the Governor and Council, 
of which body the Chief Justice was a member.^ But, 
notwithstanding the Chief Justice's presence, the petition 
obtained no relief from that quarter. It will be recollected 
that when the Commons had in 1722 committed the mer- 
chants for memorializing them against the bill in regard 
to the currency, the Council had even then declined to 
interfere, though in sympathy with the merchants against 
the reissue of the bill upon which the Commons were 
determined. They now came zealously to the assistance 
of the Commons in their arbitrary measures. So able and 
moderate a man as Francis Yonge made a most carefully 
prepared speech sustaining the action of the House. This 

1 At this council there were present his Excellency Governor Robert 
Johnson, the Hon. William Bull, Alexander Skene, Francis Yonge, James 
Kinloch, John Fenwicke, Thomas Waring, Robert Wright, Chief Justice, 
John Hammerton. Proceedings published in So. Ca. Gazette for April 
21-28, 1733. 



154 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAllOLINA 

speech he began, of course, in accordance witli the custom 
of the times, with aduUitory alhision to the mikl and just 
government under which it was the fortune of the inhab- 
itants of the province to live. Then, warming to his 
subject : — 

"Liberty," he exclaimed, "is now become the grand theme! And 
who shall speak against so great a blessing? But therefore let such 
as want it consider well whether they have not done anything to 
forfeit it, for if they have, themselves are the authors of their own 
unhappiness, and whether they are so I must leave to you to deter- 
mine ; but I shall take leave to state the affair first with relation to the 
things done by Dr. Cooper, Mr. Graeme, and Mr. Vaughn, now under 
confinement by the Commons' House of Assembly, and for which they 
are so confined. And then I shall examine a little into the power of 
the House with relation thereto, and quote some passages out of such 
authors and books as I have now occasionally perused, the better to 
inform myself whether such commitments are cognizable in the Infe- 
rior Coui'ts, or if persons so confined are within the intention of the 
habeas corpus act. 

"And first I find Dr. Cooper, the Deputy Surveyor, laying out lands 
contrary to law, and the Governor's warrant, which tends to the 
creating litigious dispute, and involving the country in the utmost 
confusion. 

"Mr. Graeme's conduct is for that he, as attorney, did fill up and 
sign a capias ad respondendum against ,John Brown, messenger of the 
House, directed to the Provost Marshal at the suit of Thomas Cooper, 
Esq., &c. 

" That Mr. Rowland Vaughn is for an open and notorious affront 
and contempt offered the House by serving a writ of habeas corpus on 
John Brown, messenger, when he was actually in the execution of his 
office in the business of the House, with his Rod in his hand. 

" Far be it from me," he declared, "to undertake to tell what are 
the Commons' Privileges, but it is presumed they are the same as the 
House of Commons of Great Britain, since his Majesty has been 
pleased (altho' negatively) to allow it by saying they shall have no 
more than that the House enjoys. And he has been pleased to direct 
positively that they and their servants shall be privileged and free 
from arrest during their session. This then being granted, let us 
see wlietber these gentlemen have exceeded their bounds and doue 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 155 

more than the Commons of England, or more than former assemblies 
have done in this province." 

Mr. Yonge then quoted several cases from EckliarcVs 
History of Englcmd iii which he claimed that the Commons 
in England had asserted and exercised their right of com- 
mitment and resisted its abridgment. He quoted also 
the famous case of the Aylesbury men^ in which a corrupt 
return by the Bailiff of W^estminster, during the struggle 
between the Tory House of Commons and the Whig 
House of Lords upon the accession of Queen Anne, 1704, 
having been received by a party vote, the defeated Whig 
candidate, who had a considerable majority of legal 
votes, brought action in the Court of Queen's Bench 
against the returning officer, and recovered large dam- 
ages ; whereupon the court, on a motion in arrest of judg- 
ment, had held that no such action could be maintained, 
as it was a matter involving the privileges of the Com- 
mons, and had set aside the judgment, thus sustaining 
the extreme and exclusive power of that body. Mr. Yonge 
did not, how^ever, comment upon, or even allude to, the 
vigorous resistance to that monstrous doctrine of parlia- 
mentary power, which, as Lord Campbell says, has ren- 
dered the name of Chief Justice Lord Holt so illustrious. ^ 
The case of the Aylesbury men was a very different one 
from that about which Mr. Yonge was speaking. That 
case went off upon the point of an invasion of the privi- 
leges of the Commons, because the returning officer liad 
been sued for making a false return, which return the 
Commons had accepted and adjudged to have been 
correct. But there was no question of privilege in the 
initiation of this case. Mr. Rothmaller and Dr. Cooper 

1 Campbell's Lives of the Lard Chief .histkes, vol. II, 127. Ashby v. 
miite^ 2 Lord Raymond, lUtJ ; Domina Regina v. Paley et al., 2 Salkeld, 
503. 



156 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

had in no way meddled with the privileges of the Com- 
mons. If guilty of anything it was in having violated 
the Governor's instruction and the Quit-rent act ; and 
whether they were or were not guilty of so doing was a 
judicial question for the courts — not for legislative 
action. In the language of Holt in Ashhy v. White :^ — 

" The declarations of the House of Commons will not make that a 
breach of privilege which was none before. The privileges of the 
House of Commons are well known, and are founded upon the law 
of the land, and are nothing but the law — we all know that the 
members of the House of Commons have no protection from any 
arrest in case of treason, felony, or breaches of the peace, and if they 
declare that they have privileges which they have no legal claim to, 
the people of England will not be estopped by that declaration. This 
privilege of theirs concerns the liberty of the people in a high degree, 
by subjecting them to imprisonment for that which heretofore has 
been lawful, and which cannot be made unlawful without an act of 
parliament." 

' Mr. Yonge also referred to the proceedings of the 
House, in 1722, during Sir Francis Nicholson's adminis- 
tration, when that body committed the merchants for 
petitioning against the currency bill, quoted them at 
length, and made the most of them as precedent. 

The Chief Justice, having a seat in the Council, was 
present at the discussion and thus vigorously replied to 
Mr. Yonge : — 

"I am under the greatest concern imaginable," he said, "that there 
should be any dispute or animosities amongst us in the province, and 
more especially, since we have the happiness to be under the immedi- 
ate protection and government of his Majesty, that we should spurn 
at his authority. 

" Far be it from me to dispute the known privileges of the Lower 
House of Assembly. I acknowledge they may have many undoubted 
ones, and those have been duly and justly granted to them by your 
Excellency. 

1 Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chief Justices, vol. II, 131. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 157 

" But these Resolutions (tliose of tlie House) are of a most extraor- 
dinary nature, tending to the subversion of all government by dis- 
allowing his Majesty's undoubted pi'erogative, removing all obedience 
to his writ of habeas corpus, and assuming to themselves power to 
abrogate and make void the known laws of the land by arbitrarily 
imprisoning their fellow subjects. 

" They proceed still f urtiier, and in a most daring and contempt- 
uous manner publish the same by affixing them to the door of the 
Council Chamber, requiring the Chief Justice to observe them as 
law^s, and to suspend liis JNlajesty's writ of habeas corpus by him legally 
granted. 

" This being so bold an attack upon his ^Majesty's authority and 
the laws of the land, I conceive that it can't take much time for your 
Excellency and this Board to consider what ought to be done in so 
weighty an affair ; for my part, I must declare that these Resolves are 
no laws and, therefore, shall little regard them, being sworn to the 
contrary, and to the due observance of the laws of the land, and to 
maintain and support his Majesty's prerogative so attacked by these 
Resolves. 

"These unwarranted Resolves are of the utmost ill consequence to 
the province, as they strike at his Majesty's prerogative, the liberty 
of the subject, and the fundamental laws of the land, and should I 
descend to or countenance them so far as to act in concert with those 
who made and published them, I should break my oath, betray my 
trust and the liberties of the people in a most shameful and dishonest 
maimer, and thereby become guilty of preinunire, if not a crime of a 
higher nature.^ 

" I shall, therefore, with great calmness, beg leave to offer my best 
advice in this important affair, which is that your Excellency and this 
Honorable Board would put a stop to these arbitrary, violent, and 
illegal proceedings by a dissolution of this Assembly, or by such 
means as your Excellency and the Council shall think proper, on 
w'hich the liberties of the people, and the peace and welfare of the 
province so much depend." ^ 

1 Praemunire or premunire, an offence of a nature highly criminal, 
though not capital, and more immediately affecting the King or his gov- 
ernment. It is named from tlie words of the writ preparatory to the 
prosecution therefor, pnvmunire facias, A. B., etc. Jacob's Lnio Die. 

2 As a rule, all connnitments of either House of Parliament ipso facto 
expired with the House by which made. A dissolution by the Governor, 



158 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Upon this debate the Council resolved (1) that it was 
not for liis Majesty's service or the interest of the prov- 
ince either to prorogue or dissolve the present Assembly ; 
(2) that it was the opinion of the Council that his Majesty 
did allow (by his instructions to the Governor) the Com- 
mons' House of Assembly the same privileges as the House 
of Commons enjoyed in England ; (3) that the Commons' 
House of Assembly had a right to commit persons for 
breach of privilege and notorious grievances that might 
affect the people of the province, and have always prac- 
tised and enjoyed the same ; that in cases of contempt or 
breach of privileges of any inferior court, much more of 
the Court of Parliament, no writ of habeas corpus will be 
or ought to be granted. Then upon reading and consid- 
ering the charges uj^on which Dr. Cooper, Mr. Graeme, 
and Mr. Vaughn were committed they resolved (1) that 
the House had done no more in committing them than the 
House of Commons of England had frequently done in 
like cases ; (2) that it was the opinion of the Council that 
the resolutions of the Commons' House of Assembly pub- 
lished in the Gazette did not in any way strike at his 
Majesty's prerogative or the liberties of the people as was 
supposed in the Chief Justice's speech. 

The Council ordered the speech made by Mr. Yonge 
published in the next Gazette^ and the Chief Justice pub- 
lished his in the same issue of that paper — 21st of April, 
1733. The Commons' House took further offence at the 
publication of the Chief Justice's speech and addressed his 
Excellency the Governor and Council protesting against 
it. For his invasion of their privileges, they said, they 
would have punished the Cliief Justice suitable to his 
offence but tliat he was a member of his Majesty's Council 

therefore, would release all parties committed by the House. May's 
Law and Practice of Parliament., 95. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 159 

and therefore under its protection. Having according to 
their duty represented to his Excellency and their Honors 
the mischievous behavior of the Chief Justice, which in 
their opinion was calculated to hurt his Majesty's interests, 
they doubted not but that his Excellency and their Honors 
would take such measures as should frustrate his wicked 
designs. They could not, the Commons said, punish the 
Chief .Tustice as he deserved ; but they found a way in 
which they could quietly do so very effectually. In pass- 
ing the supply bill for the year they took care to omit 
from it any provision for his salary. Governor Johnson 
does not appear to have given the Chief Justice any sup- 
port in the controversy, but he now interfered in his 
behalf and sent a message to the Commons upon the sub- 
ject of his salary, to which the House replied, reviewing 
the dispute and concluding, " These reasons (had the 
salary of the Chief Justice been established by law) would 
have been sufficient to have induced us to bring a bill to 
disqualify him, much more to justify us to your Excellency 
and all the world in negativing the allowance to him that 
is discretionary in us to give or not to give." 

Dr. Cooper, Mr. Vaughn, and Mr. Graeme were upon 
their submission released ; but the wrath of the Commons 
against the Chief Justice was not so easily appeased. 
They not only deprived him of his salary, but resolved 
that he ought to be suspended ; and failing in obtaining 
this from Governor Johnson, they proceeded to enact a 
measure which was entitled '■''An Act for the prevention of 
suits and disturbances to His Majesty's Judges and Magis- 
trates in this Province on account of the Habeas Corpus 
Act.'"^ The recital to this act makes this most extrava- 
gant and ridiculous charge : — 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 347. 



160 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

" Forasmuch as divers evil disposed persons have, since the first 
day of February, 1732, spoke, done, acted, and meditated acts, deeds, 
and things during the sitting of tliis General Assembly in contempt 
and defiance of His Majesty's Government and authority in a dar- 
ing and contemptuous manner, and in defiance of the power and 
authority of both Houses of Assembly in this Province, and it being- 
very apparent to His Majesty's Council, and the Commons' House of 
Assembly of this Province, that some particular turbulent and ill 
minded persons have combined and confederated together in the 
contrivance of a new invented scheme to acquire money by speaking 
and acting most audaciously and contemptuously against the Legisla- 
tive power of this Province, and provoking their own confinement by 
offending authority, and under pretence of urging their enlargement 
from such confinement (not by submission, confession of guilt, or re- 
quest for forgiveness) have endeavored to intimidate the Magistrates 
of this Province by soliciting and demanding a writ or writs of 
Habeas Corpus, although not legally entitled thereto, and on such 
Magistrates non-compliance or refusal have threatened actions, suits, 
and vexations in hopes of bringing the JVLagistracy of the Province 
under a general contribution to such insolent offendei s ; in order, 
therefore, to establish the quiet of His Majesty's Magistrates and 
other officers against the threats, suits, and disturbances of such a 
malignant cabal of people we humbly pray, &c." 

Having thus set up these conspirators, these men of 
straw, these rogues in buckram, the act goes on solemnly 
to provide against their evil deeds, and declares that no 
public officer should be subject to suit or penalty for 
neglecting to issue habeas corpus in such cases. It is 
curious and remarkable that Mr. John Lloyd, who had 
been recently sent as one of the agents of the province to 
England, a dignified, sober person, in a grave and serious 
si)eech, which is published in the Gazette^ supports this 
bill. In vain did the Chief Justice, in the Council and 
by letter in the Gazette, temperately reply to Mr. Lloyd, 
and point out its absurdities, showing that the writs for 
damages, which he was charged witli signing for such 
evil purposes, were but blank writs signed by him and 



il 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 161 

left with the clerk to be issued to the attorneys who 
applied for them, and about which he knew nothing until 
the case came before him in due course of law. Just so 
writs to-day are issued by the Clerk of the United States 
courts in the name of Melville Fuller, Chief Justice, the 
name of the Chief Justice now being printed in the body 
of the writ, not signed by the hand of the Chief Justice him- 
self. The act was passed, and Mr. Francis Yonge going 
to England about this time, Governor Johnson sends 
it to the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State, with a 
letter by him, in which he tells his Grace that there was 
an imperative necessity to put a stop to such litigious 
proceedings as were threatened by some lawyers who had 
been committed by the Lower House of Assembly for con- 
tempt and breach of privilege, and who had procured 
commitments in order to raise contributions from the 
Magistrates. He trusts it will meet with his Majesty's 
approbation. Mr. Yonge would give more fully the 
reasons inducing him to give his assent to the act. Mr. 
Yonge was not successful, however, in satisfying the 
Royal government of the propriety of this singular meas- 
ure. Dr. Cooper presented a petition, giving his version 
of the matter, which with the act was referred to the 
Board of Trade and Plantations, and upon the report of 
that body the King in Council disallowed and ordered 
the act repealed. 1 

It was a great cause in which Chief Justice Wright, 
Mr. Vaughn, and Mr. Graeme, who was afterward also 
Chief Justice, were engaged. And yet, strange to say, 
though it cannot be supposed for a moment that either 
House of Parliament in England or either House of 
Congress in this country, or of the legislature in any 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. II, 184, 262 ; Statutes of So. Ca., 
vol. Ill, 348, 349. 

VOL. n — M 



162 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

State would dare now to commit any one for aught but 
an actual breach of privilege or contempt, Chief Justice 
Wright stands alone at that time with Chief Justice Holt 
in resisting the power of a legislature in such a case. The 
theory of such a power rests on the theory of the omnipo- 
tence of Parliament and on the theory that either House 
sits as a court. But as Holt argued, neither House nor 
both Houses acting together can alter the law so as to 
affect the liberty or property of the subject ; the Queen 
in England and the Executive in this country — President 
or Governor — must join in doing so. The necessity for 
the concurrence of the three branches of the legislature, 
as he said, constitute the excellence of our Constitution. 
How, then, can the omnipotence of Parliament be invoked 
to sustain the action of either House without the concur- 
rence of the other and of the Executive? The privileges 
of the House of Commons, said Holt, are well known, and 
nothing but law. And yet so great a judge as Lord 
Kenyon quailed before the House of Lords in 1799, and 
refused to release one charged with libelling that body 
because criticising its action. ^ This case, however, was 
one of an alleged contempt. But in the famous case of 
Sir Erancis Burdett, in 1810, in which he was committed 
to the Tower for writing a letter challenging the right 
of the Commons to commit for contempts. Lord Ellen- 
borough, following Holt, was bold enough to deny to the 
House a general criminal jurisdiction, and to declare that 
while if a commitment by it appeared to be for contempt 
generally, he would inquire no further ; if, on the other 
hand, it did not profess to commit for a contempt but for 
some matter appearing on the return to the writ which 

1 The King v. Fowler, 8 Town Reports (Dumford and East), 314. 
See in this case an admirable summary of precedents to that time by 
Clifford. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 163 

could by no reasonable intendment be considered as a con- 
temjjt, but a commitment palpably and evidently arbitrary 
and unjust, he would consider himself bound to act as 
justice might require.^ Strange to sa}^ as late as 1851 
Lord Campbell criticises the action of Holt and the dechi- 
ration of Lord Ellenborough, and disapproves of the threat 
of some judges to look into cases of commitment by tlie 
Houses of Parliament, and to discharge the prisoner if 
the commitment appeared to them not to amount to a 
breach of privilege, and prides himself upon a device of 
his while Lord Chancellor, which he says is allowed on all 
hands entirely to oust the jurisdiction of the common 
law courts. 2 

Here, as in almost every other instance, we see that 
the controversies in the colonial Assemblies were but the 
reflex of the struggles going on in the mother country, 
stimulated, no doubt, by the impulses to freedom to which 
their surroundings in the new country gave birth. 

1 BurcleU v. Abbott, 14 East, 358. 

2 Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. II, 132 n. , 134 n. 



CHAPTER X 

1733-37 

On the 13th of January, 1733, General Oglethorpe 
arrived at Charlestown with the first part of his colony 
for the settlement of Georgia. They were received by 
the Governor and Council with every mark of civility 
and attention. The King's pilot was directed to carry 
the ship into Port Royal, and small vessels were provided 
by them to take the emigrants to the Savannah River. 
Thus assisted, they resumed their voyage, and shortly 
dropped anchor within Port Royal bar. The colony 
landed at Beaufort on the 20th of January, and had quar- 
ters given them in the new barracks there. They received 
every attention from the officers of his Majesty's Indepen- 
dent Company and the gentlemen of the neighborhood, 
and refreshed themselves after the fatigues and discomforts 
of their long voyage and cramped accommodations. 

Leaving his people there, Oglethorpe accompanied by 
Colonel William Bull explored the country, and having 
found a high and pleasant spot of ground on the Savan- 
nah, fixed upon it as the most convenient and healthy 
situation for the colony. On this place they marked out 
a town, and from the Indian name of the river they 
called it Savannah. A small fort was erected on the 
banks as a place of refuge, and some guns were mounted. 
The people were set to work felling trees and building 
huts, Oglethorpe animating, and encouraging them by 
sharing with them all the hardships they endured. 

164 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 165 

The most generous assistance, says Bishop Stevens, was 
given the new colony by South Carolina. The Assembly 
which met three days after the arrival of the emigrants, 
though engaged, as we have seen, in the controversy with 
the Chief Justice and the lawyers, and though still busy 
with the vexed question of the currency, found time and 
means to devote to their assistance. They immediately 
resolved to furnish the colony with large supplies of 
cattle and rice. They appointed Colonel William Bull, 
one of the Governor's Council and a gentleman esteemed 
" most capable of assisting Oglethorpe in settling, by 
reason of his experience in colonial affairs, the nature of 
lands, and the intercourse with Indians," to attend him 
and afford him advice and assistance. There was a gen- 
eral readiness of all to assist the new colony. The Gov- 
ernor wrote, " Had not our Assembly been sitting, I 
would have gone myself." Nor was private assistance 
in any way behind public munificence. Colonel Bull 
brought with him four laborers and assisted the colony 
for a month, he himself measuring the scantling and 
setting out the work for the sawyers. Mr. Whitaker and 
his friends sent the colony one hundred head of cattle. 
Mr. St. Julien went to Savannah and stayed a month, 
directing the people in building their houses and other 
work. Mr. Hume sent a silver boat and spoon for the 
first child born in Georgia, which being born of Mrs. 
Close was given accordingly. Mr. Joseph Bryan himself 
with four of his sawyers gave two months' work. The 
inhabitants of Edisto sent sixteen sheep. Mr. Hammer- 
ton gave a drum. Mrs. Ann Drayton sent two pair of 
sawyers. Colonel Bull and Mr. Bryan appear to have 
given the services of twenty other of their servants. 
His Excellency Governor Johnson gave seven horses. 

Having put Savannah in as strong a position of defence 



166 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

as possible, and taken hostages of the Indians, General 
Oglethorpe returned to Charlestown attended by an Ind- 
ian chief Tomocliichi, chief of a small tribe he had found 
at an Indian village and trading town called Yamacraw, 
and two of his nephews. He came to solicit further 
assistance. He was met at the waterside by his Excel- 
lency the Governor and Council, who conducted him to 
the Governor's house, where the speaker and House of 
Assembly came to present their official congratulations 
on his arrival. His solicitations were promptly answered. 
The Assembly voted £ 2000 currency for the assistance of 
Georgia the first year, and soon after the committee of 
supply brought in a bill for granting £ 8000 currency for 
the use of the colony for the ensuing year. The citizens 
also subscribed £ 1000 currency, £ 500 of which were 
immediately paid down.^ Oglethorpe met not only with 
this substantial assistance ; there was an exchange also 
of social amenities. The Gazette of Saturday, 23d of 
May, 1733, announces that " Last week the Assembly sent 
a message by two of their members to compliment Mr. 
Oglethorpe, and invite the Governor and himself to din- 
ner. There was a very handsome entertainment, which 
concluded with drinking of healths to his Majesty, the 
Royal Family, &c., and firing the cannon. On Thurs- 
day, Mr. Oglethorpe invited his Excellency the Governor 
and Council to dinner, and at night he gave a ball, and a 
cold supper to the ladies at the Council Chamber. There 
was there the greatest appearance of fashion that has been 
known on such an occasion." 

The liberal assistance given by South Carolina to the 
establishment of the new colony cannot, however, be 
claimed as an act of mere generosity. The planting of 

^ Hist, of Georgia (Stevens), vol. I, 87, 95; Statutes of So. Ca., 
vol. Ill, 362, 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 167 

this colony greatly increased the security of the old 
province from the Spaniards and Indians at St. Augus- 
tine who had proven so injurious, and well might the 
settlers in Carolina, old and new, do all in their power 
to build up a living wall, as it were, between them and 
their dangerous neighbors. They were prepared, there- 
fore, to hail the new colony as a bulwark against their 
Floridian and savage enemies, as opening further oppor- 
tunities of trade, and as enhancing the value of their 
frontier possessions, which, according to the best authori- 
ties, were raised, it was said, to five times their former 
value about Port Royal and the Savannah River, ^ 

Governor Robert Johnson's tenure as first regular Gov- 
ernor under the Royal authority Avas not a long one. 
His health had been failing, and he died on the 3d of 
May, 1735. There had been no such stirring events as 
had occurred during his administration under the Pro- 
prietors. He had had no occasion again to exhibit the 
heroic qualities which he had shown in his brilliant action 
against the pirates in 1718. But the traits which, even 
amidst the troublesome times under which he had for- 
merly served, had made the people wish to retain the 
Governor while overthrowing the government which he 
represented, in the quieter times of his administration 
as a Royal Governor, now given free exercise, had still 
more endeared him to the colonists, and had won for 
liim the title of the "good Governor Robert Johnson." 
The South Carolina Gazette of May 10, 1735, tlius an- 
nounces his death, and tells of his funeral ceremonies : — 

" On Saturday last (May 3?) between twelve and one o'clock died 
after a long and lingering sickness His Excellency Robert Johnson 
P^sq: Captain General, Governor and Commander in Chief in and 
over this His Majesty's Province, and was decently interred on 

1 Hist, of Georgia (Stevens), vol. I, 93. 



168 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Monday last in a vault near the altar in Charles Town Church. 
His Pali was supported by the " gentlemen of his Council, and his 
corps(e) was attended to the grave by the Lower House of Assembly 
preceded by the Speaker and a numerous body of Gentlemen and 
Ladies who came from all parts of the Province where timely notice 
could be had of his death to pay the last respects to one whom they 
might justly look upon as their common father. The Troop and two 
companies of the Charles Town Foot appeared on the melancholy 
occasion to add to the solemnity of the jirocession. The principal 
mourners were His Excellency's two sons and two daughters, his 
brother in law Thomas Broughton Esq: the present governor and 
his family. His Excellency died in the 59* year of his age and the 
5^^ of his govei-nment. He had on his advancement disposed of all 
his patrimony in England so that his interest might concur with his 
inclination in jiromoting the welfare of that country his Majesty had 
done him the honor to intrust him with the care of, and accordingly 
always kept up a good correspondence with the Assembly, as they 
were all fully convinced by the whole tenor of his conduct that the 
interest of the province lay principally at his heart. But it is need- 
less to enlarge upon a life and character so well known and which 
has rend'd his death so universally and deservedly lamented over the 
whole Province." 

The General Assembly caused to be erected a monu- 
ment to Governor Johnson's memory in St. Philip's 
Church, and there it remained on the walls until the 
edifice was burned in 1835, just one hundred years 
after. 1 

Upon Governor Johnson's death the administration 
of the province devolved upon Lieutenant Governor 
Thomas Broughton, his brother-in-law, who immediately 
assumed the government, and issued his proclamation 
announcing that he had done so.^ 

Lieutenant Governor Broughton was a plain, honest 
gentleman, but little distinguished, says Hewatt, for 

1 See the inscription on the monument in Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 122; 
Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1880, 270. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, 10th of May, 1735. 



i 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 169 

qualities suited to the position to which he was thus 
accidentally called; and it was charged that during his 
brief administration many leading men acquired large 
possessions without many scruples in the way in which 
they were obtained, the Lieutenant Governor, without 
suspicion, freely granting warrants for the lands they 
desired.^ But his short administration of less than two 
years was more remarkable for another constitutional 
struggle. This time it was between the Commons' 
House of Assembly on the one side, and himself as Gov- 
ernor with his Council on the other. The reader must 
not tire of the details of these constantly recurring 
struggles between the different branches of govern- 
ment ; he must reflect that it was through these conten- 
tions that the principles of liberty he now enjoys came 
to be understood and recognized. He must recollect that 
it was in these early discussions in our colonial Assem- 
blies that the principles at stake in the great Revolution 
of 1776 were evolved and formulated and implanted in 
the minds of the people, as if in preparation for that 
greater struggle and its momentous consequences. These 
struggles may have been, and probably were, in some in- 
stances, at least, more the outcome of factious spirits con- 
tending for power than the promptings of enlarged ideas 
and settled convictions upon the subject of constitutional 
government ; but all the same it was through these means 
that under the providence of God the foundations of our 
free institutions were being settled and established. 

The colonists in South Carolina were closely following 
the development of the principles of government in the 
mother country. The Commons, claiming to be the im- 
mediate representatives of the people, were asserting for 
themselves all the power and privileges of the Commons in 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 46. 



170 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the Parliament of England. They were watching closely 
and curbing upon ever}^ occasion the exercise of any ques- 
tioned prerogative of the Governor and Council ; nor were 
they willing to admit that the latter body on their part 
possessed the power of the House of Lords, nor even to 
acknowledge that the Council was an Upper House or 
anything more than an advisory board to the Governor. 
The Council on the other hand were prompt not only to 
assert their rights and power as an Upper House as against 
the Commons ; but even as against the Governor himself 
they claimed and successfully asserted their independence 
as a distinct branch of the government. They were not, it 
is true, an hereditary order, but as deputies of the Proprie- 
tors or as councillors of the King there were several 
families in the colony who were rarely without repre- 
sentation in that body. It was seldom that there was not 
a Bull, or a Middleton, or a Drayton in the Council. 

The legal right of the Commons in England to originate 
grants of money had long been recognized ; but to the right 
of originating such measures their claim appears to have 
been confined for nearly three hundred years. The Lords 
were not originally precluded from amending bills of sup- 
ply. But contemporaneously with the founding of Carolina, 
i.e. in 1671, the Commons in England had advanced their 
claim and had begun to deny the right of the Lords in any 
way to change or alter such bills. This principle, though 
never formally admitted, was acquiesced in and became 
and still remains the settled rule in the British Parliament, 
subject however to certain slight modifications which for 
convenience have been allowed. ^ Such was undoubtedly 
the constitutional principle in England. But did the cir- 
cumstances of the colonies in America call for or warrant 

1 May's Law and Practice of Parliament, 407, 408 ; Cushing's Laic and 
Practice of Legislative Assemblies, 880, 801. 



i\ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 171 

its application here ? Did the Council stand to the Com- 
mons' House of Assembly in South Carolina in the same 
position as the Lords did to the Commons in Parliament 
so as to justify and warrant the application of this rule? 
It did not ; and experience has demonstrated that the rule 
was needless and inapplicable in this country. Though in 
most States and in the Congress of the United States all 
tax bills must originate in the Lower House as the more 
immediate representation of the people, the Senate, which 
stands in the place of the House of Lords in England, is 
free to alter or amend as it deems best. 

The 35th section of Governor Nicholson's instructions, 
it will be recollected, was especially framed to meet this 
claim which had been set up in other colonies. It espe- 
cially provided that if upon calling an Assembly in Caro- 
lina, the Commons refused to allow the Council to alter or 
amend a tax bill, his Excellency was to signify to them 
that it was his Majesty's pleasure that the Council should 
have the like power of framing and allowing money bills 
as the Assembly. His Majesty's right to make this instruc- 
tion was now to be boldly questioned, and in doing so it 
will be observed that the colonists were asserting a consti- 
tutional limitation to his Majesty's powers, as well as insist- 
ing upon the rights of the people alone by their immediate 
representation to grant supplies. 

The struggle during Mr. Middleton's administration 
had been like that in England over " the Occasional Con- 
formity Bill " in 1704, when the Tories, in brief control of 
the Commons, had endeavored to force that measure upon 
the Whig House of Lords by tacking it to a supply bill, 
and thereby saying to the Peers that they would only 
obtain the means of carrying on the government by yield- 
ing to their demands. It will be remembered how that 
attempt failed in England. For four years, i.e. from 



172 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

1727 to 1731 the Commons here had refused to allow the 
passage of any tax bill that did not contain a provision for 
the extension of the currency. The question now arose in 
different form though really involving the same principle. 
In this instance the Commons were not seeking to force 
upon the Governor and Council any extraneous legislation 
by means of a tax bill, as had then been attempted ; but 
were resisting the right of the Council sitting as an 
Upper House to amend a tax bill for any purpose what- 
ever. They were maintaining the doctrine not only of 
the exclusive right of the Commons to grant supplies, but 
the denial of the right of the Council to do more than 
accept or reject a tax bill as sent. The bill in this case 
sent to the Council was one providing merely for the 
usual items of annual expenditure ; but this the Council 
undertook to amend ; and there at once arose a ver}' far- 
reaching question, — one going to the roots of the Royal 
governments in the American colonies, — assuming that 
the Council occupied to the matter the same position as 
the House of Lords : could his Majesty the King by his 
Royal instruction to the Governors in any way affect or 
limit the rights and privileges of the colonists as English 
subjects? If British subjects in England could only be 
taxed by their immediate representatives in the Commons' 
House of Parliament Avithout amendment by the House 
of Lords, could British subjects in America be taxed 
by a body here corresponding to the House of Lords in 
England ? 

The Assembly had hardly returned from the funeral 
ceremonies upon the death and burial of Governor Robert 
Johnson when the struggle began. The Commons' House 
having prepared the money or supply bill to provide for 
the expenses of the current year, it was sent to the Coun- 
cil for its concurrence. Lieutenant Governor Broughton, 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 173 

who was then sitting with the Council, and the members 
of that body, not being satisfied with the provisions of the 
bill, proceeded to alter it by adding thereto an item of 
<£2100, and having done so they sent it back to the Com- 
mons as amended in the Council chamber. ^ 

In a moment the Commons were up in arms, and with- 
out waiting for a conference proceeded to declare their 
view of their rights in very positive terms. A committee 
was appointed to consider the infringement on their pre- 
rogative, as it was said, of which Charles Pinckney was 
chairman. 2 The report of the committee, which was 
drafted by Mr. Pinckney, made a strong presentation 
upon the subject. We read from the Journal : — 

"Mr. Pinckney from the Committee to draw up Resolutions on 
the Council Amending the Tax bill offered the following ones, which 
were read and agreed to by the House nemine contradicente and 
ordered to be entered on the journals, viz. : 

" In the Commons' House of Assembly the 28th day of March 1735. 

" Resolved, That it is the Opinion of this House that it is the 
inherent right and privilege of every Englishman not to be charged 
with any taxes or aids of money but what are given and granted by 
his Representative in Parliament. 

" Resolved that the House of Commons have the sole right and 
power over the Moneys of the Peoples and of giving and granting or 
denying Aids or Moneys for the Public Service. 

" Resolved that the House of Commons have the first commence- 
ment and consideration, the sole Modelling in their House of all 
Laws for imposing Taxes and levying and raising acts of Money upon 
the People for the defence and support of the state and government. 

1 The author has in this account followed very closely the collations of 
the Reports and Resolves of the two Houses as prepared by Mr. Shirley 
Carter Hughson, and published in a communication to the New York 
Evening Post under date September 16, 1893. 

2 Charles Pinckney was the son of Thomas Pinckney, concerning whom 
see Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 261, 262. This was 
the beginning of an illustrious career in which he will frequently appear 
in these pages. 



174 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

" Resolved That the foregoing privileges are some of the Funda- 
mental Laws, Rights, Liberties and Customs of the people of Eng- 
land confirmed by many statutes and acts of Parliament. 

" Resolved, That his Majesty's Subjects of this Province are entitled 
to all the liberties and privileges of Englishmen. 

" Resolved That the Commons' House of Assembly in this Province 
by Laws and Statutes of Great Britain made of force in this Province 
and by ancient Usage and Custom have the same rights and Privi- 
leges in regard to introducing and passing Laws for imposing Taxes 
on the People of this Province as the House of Commons of Great 
Britain have in introducing and passing Laws on the people of 
England. 

" Resolved That after the estimate is closed and added to any 
Tax Bill that no additions can or ought to be made thereto by any 
other Estate or Power whatsoever but by and in the Commons' House 
of Assembly." 

The Speaker was directed by the House to thank Mr. 
Pinckney for the care and trouble he had taken in vindi- 
cating the rights and privileges of the House, which he 
accordingly did. The resolutions do not appear to have 
been formally presented to the Council, for we find the 
next day that that body sent a message requesting the 
action of the House upon their amendments and urging 
the importance of an immediate passage of the bill. The 
Commons promptly replied, denying the power of the 
'Council to amend a tax bill, and informing them that as 
the Commons regarded their action in doing so, as strik- 
ing at the fundamentals, they had unanimously rejected 
the bill on the third reading. Upon this Lieutenant 
Governor Broughton, as he was bound to do by the 35th 
Instruction to Sir Francis Nicholson, which had been con- 
tinued in Governor Johnson's instructions, to which he 
succeeded, on the 29th of March prorogued the Assembly 
to the 15th of April, he being left in the meanwhile with- 
out any funds upon which to draw for current expenses. 

When the Assembly met again on the 15th of April 



il 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 175 

Lieutenant Governor Broughton addressed them, urging 
them to proceed in raising the necessary supplies for the 
support of tlie government ; but the temper of the House 
had not changed. The members came back determined 
to insist upon their position. They replied that they had 
rejected the bill at the last session on the highest reasons 
and for the preservation of the most invaluable privileges 
of the people, which they should endeavor to preserve 
sacred and inviolable. 

The Commons remaining firm. Lieutenant Governor 
Broughton addressed them another message, calling their 
attention to his Majesty's 35th Instruction to Governor 
Nicholson, under which the Board had power to frame, 
alter, or amend money bills, which could not be looked 
upon as an infringement of the liberties of the people, and 
urging them to send up the estimates for the action of the 
Council. 

Upon receiving this message asserting the right of the 
Council to amend money bills under Governor Nicholson's 
35th Instruction, the Commons appointed a committee to 
examine the journals of former Houses to see what had 
been done by them in cases of a like nature. The com- 
mittee consisted of Othneal Beale, Charles Pinckney, and 
Andrew Riitledge. They met immediately and made the 
examination. They reported that the} had searched the 
journals and found that the Council at several times at 
the beginning of Mr. Middleton's administration, in 1725, 
claimed a right of framing, altering, and amending tax 
bills, but that the Commons' House of Assembly would 
never agree to any such- amendments by the Upper House; 
that at one time a tax bill was lost which had been 
amended by the Council ; that at another when amend- 
ments had been made in a tax bill by the Council, the 
Lower House had struck the same out, and sent the bill 



176 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

back, as first framed in the Commons' House, and that the 
Council in the end gave up the point. Upon this verbal 
report the committee were instructed to draw a formal 
message to the Council in answer to theirs of that morn- 
ing. Mr. Pinckney reported a message accordingly, which 
was agreed to and signed by the Speaker. The message 
maintained (1) that the 35th Instruction, relating as it 
did to the election law, could not give power to the 
Council to amend a tax bill in derogation of the funda- 
mental rights of the Commons' House ; (2) that it would 
be extraordinary for the Council to assume such a power, 
it never having been consented to by the House ; and 
(3) that the Council's claim as to the tax bill would be an 
egregious departure from the unquestionable privileges of 
the House. And so the matter rested, and it was not 
until the next year that a supply bill was passed. 
Lieutenant Governor Broughton died on the 22d of 
November, 1737, when the government devolved upon 
William Bull as President of the Council. 



i 



CHAPTER XI 

1737-40 

Lieutenant Governor Broughton died on the 22d of 
November, 1737, and as it happened, Mr. Arthur Middle- 
ton, the President of the Council, had died on the 6th of 
September before ; the administration of the government 
under his Majesty's instructions devolved, therefore, upon 
the senior member of the Council, who at this time was 
the Hon. William Bull, son of the emigrant Stephen Bull, 
who camq out with the first colony under the Proprietors, 
and had already risen to the position of a member of the 
Council under their Lordships. He had been one who 
stood to the last by their Governor, but had been imme- 
diately restored to the same position upon the accession of 
the Royal government. We have just seen him busily 
engaged assisting Oglethorpe in the establishment of his 
colony. He was now to begin an administration of the 
province as President of the Council and Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, which he was repeatedly to lay down and take up 
again in the absence of a Governor, and in which his son 
was to succeed him, so that father and son were to admin- 
ister the government of the province from time to time 
for a period of thirty-three years : administrations which 
were always welcomed by the people for the ability, tact, 
and good judgment with which they were conducted, and 
which it would have been well for the Royal authority had 
it made permanent, and dignified them with the prestige 
and power which belonged only to a fully commissioned 
Governor. William Bull, Jr., the son, was Speaker of the 

VOL. II — N 177 



178 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Commons during the years 1740 to 1742, and so the acts 
passed during these years are authenticated by the signa- 
ture of the son as Speaker, and assented to by his father 
as Lieutenant Governor. ^ 

The government at home seems to have found some 
difficulty in supplying Governor Johnson's place. On the 
24th of July, 1736, it was announced at Whitehall that his 
Majesty had been pleased to appoint Brigadier General 
Anstruther, then Deputy Governor of Port Mahon, to be 
Governor of South Carolina ; ^ but nothing more was heard 
of it. In 1738 Colonel Samuel Horsey, whom the Lords 
Proprietors had pressed for the appointment when Robert 
Johnson was commissioned, was at last appointed ; but 
there was some delay in the preparation of his instruc- 
tions, owing to the confusion in respect to the titles to 
land in North and South Carolina, the King's quit-rents, 
paper money, and duties on negroes, which it was desired 
should be settled before he came out, and he died 
shortly afterward very suddenly without leaving Eng- 
land. ^ Colonel Bull was appointed Lieutenant Governor 
June 3, 1738, and on the 25th of December, 1738, James 
Glen kissed his Majesty's hand as Governor of South Caro- 
lina, but did not come out to the province until live years 
after.4 

The Gazette of April 5, 1739, contains this announce- 
ment : — 

" Tuesday last (i.e. 3"^) being the day appointed for the Review of 
the Troop and Regiment of St Philips Charlestovvn, the two follow- 
ing commissions of his Majesty were published at Granville Bastion, 

1 Statutes So. Ca., vol. Ill, 543, 597. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, October 9, 1736. 

3 He watt's Hi.^t. of So. Ca., vol. II, 66; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 
vol. Ill, 300 ; So. Ca. Gazette, May 18, 1738. 

* So. Ca. Gazette, April 12 and May 3, 1739 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of 
So. Ca., vol II, 271. 



fl 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 179 

under the discharge of the cannon both there and at Broughton Bat- 
tery, the one constituting and appointing the Hon: William Bull Lieu- 
tenant Governor in and over the province, and the other his Excel- 
lency James Oglethorpe General and Commander in Chief of his 
Majesty's Forces in the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia. 
After the review, the General gave a handsome entertainment to the 
members of both Houses of the General Assembly, magistrates, officers 
and other gentlemen of distinction, when the healths of his Majesty 
and the rest of the Boyal family, Dukes of Argyle and Newcastle, 
Lord Wilmington, Sir Robert Walpole, and several others were drunk 
in Bastion (a regular method of drinking, observes the Gazette in a 
foot-note, introduced by the officers of the Charlestown Regiment). 
In the evening his Excellency likewise made a general invitation to 
the ladies to an excellent supper and ball so the day was concluded 
with much pleasure and satisfaction." ^ 

General Oglethorpe was a soldier of great experience, 
having enjoyed the friendship of the Duke of Marlborough, 
through whose influence, with that of the Duke of Argjle, 
he had been made aide-de-camp to the Prince Eugene, and 
had had the advantage of service with that great master of 
the science of war. He was with Prince Eugene during 
nearly all the battles of the Austrians and the Turks on 
the frontiers of Hungary. At the siege and the battle of 
Belgrade he was in active command. This was the school 
of arms in which, and the general under whom, Oglethorpe 
had studied the art of war. In these sieges and battles he 
acquired great reputation and the commendation of the 
distinguished Prince. ^ It may well be supposed that the 
colonists regarded themselves fortunate, indeed, in having 
so experienced and distinguished a soldier in military com- 
mand, now that a rupture was again threatened between 
England and Spain, and their old enemies at St. Augus- 

1 Bishop Stevens, In his Hist, of Georgia, states that General Ogle- 
thorpe was appointed General of the forces in South Carolina and Georgia 
in .June, 1737. 

2 Stevens's Hist, of Georgia, vol. I, 79-81. 



180 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tine were again to be guarded against. They cordially 
joined in the military salutations upon his appointment, 
and in the festivities to which they were invited upon the 
occasion. 

Three years of disasters now followed in succession. In 
1738 smallpox was imported in a ship from Guinea, and 
spread so extensively that there were not a sufficient 
number of persons in health to attend the sick, and many 
persons perished from neglect and want. There was 
scarcely a house in which there had not been one or more 
deaths. Inoculation was at this time first attempted with 
some success, and the disease soon after abated. The 
next year, 1739, yellow fever again appeared, and raged 
as violently as in 1728 and 1732. It was observed 
that it was most fatal to those recently from Europe. 
Among these Chief Justice Wright fell a victim on the 
12th of October, aud among others who died were Maurice 
Lewis, Esq., Judge of the Vice Admiralty and Master 
in Chancery, Mr. Higginson, Surveyor of the Customs, 
Mr. Amyand, Clerk of the Assembly, and Mr. Strahan, 
Clerk of the Court of Admiralty. Lieutenant Governor 
Bull was compelled to prorogue the Assembly because of 
it.i In the same year occurred an insurrection of the 
negroes in which many lives were lost. The year 1740 
was remarkable in the annals of the colony for two not- 
able and inauspicious events, — an unsuccessful expedition 
to St. Augustine, and a most disastrous fire which destroyed 
a large part of the town. 

But before we proceed to the narration of these events, 
we must pause to observe two additional steps taken in 
regard to the powers of the two Houses of Assembly : 
the tirst, a repetition of the denial by the Commons of the 
right of the Council to amend a tax bill ; the second, the 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 273. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 181 

important action of the Council in asserting its legislative 
as distinct from its advisory character as a council. 

The first arose upon a most trivial matter. The Com- 
mons, while placing in the estimates to the tax bill the 
word " Honorable " before the name of Mr. Pinckney, 
who was Speaker, had omitted the prefix to that of 
Mr. Hammerton, the Secretary of tlie province and of 
the Council. The Council jocularly objected to this, but 
the objection was taken seriousl}^ and renewed the discus- 
sion as to the right of the Council to amend in any way a 
tax bill. The Council, on the other hand, roundly asserted 
its rights not only to do so, but to frame money bills. As, 
however, war with Spain was now imminent, and the 
safety of the province would not permit a controversy, an 
expedient was agreed upon by which the difficulty was 
avoided, each House reserving the rights it claimed. It 
was agreed that when the Council desired an amendment 
they would present it on a separate schedule which they 
would send to the Commons with the money bill, when 
the amendment would be proposed from the floor of the 
House and considered. ^ With this arrangement the 
House contented itself, causing to be transcribed in its 
journal, of the 10th of April, 1739, in large and bold char- 
acters, that "the Upper House of Assembly, in taking 
upon themselves to make additions and alterations in the 
bill for granting a supply to his Majesty, have violated 
the privileges of the House : It being the undoubted 
right and privilege of the Commons' House of Assembly 
to have the first commencement and sole modelling of all 
laws for imposing taxes and levying and raising aids of 
money upon the people for the support of his Majesty's 
government in this province." 

1 Letter of Lieutenant Governor Bull to Lord Hillsborough, September 
8, 1770. 



182 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The second measure, that by the Council, was still 
more decisive. Tlie day after the Commons had thus 
again reiterated their sole power to impose taxes, the 
Council took the step of excluding the Governor from 
participation in its consideration of measures of a legis- 
lative character. On the 11th of April, 1739, they entered 
u[)on their journal the following order : " The Governor 
or Commander-in-Chief being present during the debates 
of this House is of an unparliamentary nature ; it is 
therefore resolved that we will not enter into a debate 
during his presence." From this time the Governor of 
South Carolina was excluded from the Council and 
restricted to his duties of an executive character. The 
legislative and executive departments were thus clearly 
defined, distinguished, and separated, and Chief Justice 
Wright had successfully asserted the independence and 
power of the third — that of the judiciary. i 

In A Description of South Carolina, published in Lon- 
don in 1761, but which is supposed to have been the basis 
of Governor Glen's answer to the queries of the Lords 
Commissioners of Trade and Plantations made probably 

1 Mr. Brooks Adams in his work, The Emancipation of Massachusetts 
(1887), 306, speakino; uf the con.stitution of that comiiionwealth of 1779, 
observes: "But viewed as a whole the grand original conception con- 
tained in this instrument, making it loom up a land-mark in history, is 
the theory of the three coordinate departments in the administration of a 
democratic commonwealth, which has been received as the cornerstone 
of American constitutional jurisprudence." But here we see the Council 
in South Carolina by their action practically adopting and enforcing the 
distinction between the three coordinate departments of government, just 
forty years before. But the thecu'y of tlie three coordinate departments 
of government was original neither in South Carolina nor in Massachu- 
setts nor elsewhere in America. We get this idea, as we do all others of 
our free institutions, from tlie mother country. It was announced as 
fundamental by Chief Justice Holt, in the great Ai/Ieshiirif Case, in 1704, 
"The necessity for the concurrence of the three branches of the legis- 
lature," he declared, "constitutes the excellence of our comstitution." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 183 

in 1749,^ the number of white people in South Carolina, 
including men, women, and children, it is said was about 
14,000 in the year 1724, and the number of slaves at that 
time, reckoning men, women, and children, was about 
32,000,2 mostly negroes. In the last nine years, while 
the whites had little more than doubled, the negroes had 
trebled. In a memorial in 1734 by Governor Robert 
Johnson, the President of the Council, and the Speaker 
of the Commons, transmitted to his Majesty, it was stated 
that the inhabitants of both Georgia and South Carolina 
composed a militia of only 3500 men, the negroes at least 
22,000, in the proportion of 3 to 1 for all white inhabi- 
tants of South Carolina. -"^ The apprehensions of the peo- 
ple began to be aroused at this great disproportion in 
the relative numbers of the two races. In the Gazette of 
April 2, 1737, a communication aj^pears over the signa- 
ture of " M creator," in which it was stated that in four 
years past there had been imported 10,447 negroes, and in 
the four years before only 5153. To the running in debt 
for negroes beyond the means of planters, the writer attrib- 
uted the scarcity of money. He went on to say that if 
some method was not speedily taken to prevent the large 
importation of negroes, it would not only increase the 
scarcity of money, but also be of the most fatal conse- 
quence to the province. Another writer in the Gazette of 
March 9, 1738, repeats the warning. He writes : — 

" I can not avoid observing that altho'h a few negroes annually im- 
ported into the province might be of advantage to most People, yet 
such a large importation of 2600 or 2800 every year is not only a loss 

1 Advertisement to Documents connected with So. Ca. (Weston), 6-3. 

2 Drayton, in his View of So. Ca., 103, gives a table of population, 
in which the whites are put in 1723 at 14,000, the negroes at only 18,000. 
The account given by Governor Glen shows that Drayton's figures in this 
instance are incorrect. 3 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 38, 39. 



184 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to inany, but in the end may prove the Ruin of the Province, as it 
most certainly does that of many industrious Planters who unwarily 
engage in buying more than they have occasion, or are able to pay 
for." 

The writer states that until the year 1732 the common 
method of selling negroes in the province was by payment 
in rice, on time, whereby sellers were enabled to make ten 
per cent per annum profit by forbearance of requiring 
payment. The rice was valued at about 37s. Qd. per 
hundred weight, the casks going for nothing. The fac- 
tors were under no other contract with their employers in 
England than to remit the rice when they received it. 
But now he complains the case is altered, the sales being 
upon a new and quite a different footing. The factor 
here is now bound to make good all debts ; two-thirds 
of the value in twelve months, and the other one-third in 
two years after the day of sale. This the writer held the 
planter could not do. He maintained that a good crop of 
rice even at 60s. per hundred weight was not sufficient to 
pay all the planters' debts, nor would a good crop the next 
year pay half the debts then due to the trading man in 
town. But notwithstanding the apprehensions of the 
people, because of the increasing disproportion of the 
whites to the negroes, and the protests of the writer just 
quoted that the planters were buying more of them than 
they could pay for, negroes continued to be imported in 
great numbers. In 1733 it had been estimated there were 
22,000 in South Carolina, in four years following 10,447 
had been imported. In 1739 it was estimated that the 
number had increased to 40,000. ^ 

That the apprehensions of the writers we have quoted 
as to the danger of this influx of barbarous savages were 

1 Ilewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 71. It is to be observed, however, 
that Governor Glen in 1749 estimated the number at only 30,000. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 185 

not groundless was now demonstrated. An outbreak oc- 
curred, undoubtedly instigated by the Spaniards at St. 
Augustine. Emissaries had been sent persuading the 
negroes to fly from their masters to Florida, where liberty 
and protection awaited them. Many had made their 
escape to that settlement. Of these negroes the Gov- 
ernor of Florida had formed a regiment, appointed officers 
from among them, allowed them the same pay, and clothed 
them in the same uniform with the regular Spanish soldiers. 
Of all this the negroes in South Carolina were kept in- 
formed, and when they ran away made their course directly 
to St. Augustine. Several attempts to do this had recently 
been discovered and prevented. 

At length, on the 9th of September, 1739, a number of 
negroes assembled at Stono and began their movement 
by breaking open a store, killing two young men who 
guarded the warehouse, and plundering it of guns and 
ammunition. Thus provided with arms, they chose one 
of their number captain, and marched in the direction of 
Florida with colors flying and drums beating. On their 
way they entered the house of Mr. Godfrey, murdered 
him, his wife, and children, took all the arms in the house, 
and, setting fire to it, proceeded to Jacksonborough. In 
their march they plundered and burned every house, 
killed the white people, and compelled other negroes to 
join them. 

Lieutenant Governor Bull, happening to be on his way 
to Charlestown, probably from Beaufort, observing this 
body of armed negroes rode out of their way and avoided 
them. He crossed over to John's Island and from thence 
reached Charlestown with the first intelligence. Mr. 
Golightly also seeing and avoiding them went directly to 
tlie Presbyterian church at Wiltown and gave the alarm. 
By a law of the province all persons were required to carry 



186 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

arms to churcli,^ and as it was Sunday Mr. Golightly found 
there a body of armed men and proceeded with them to 
engage the negroes about eight miles distant. The women 
were left trembling with fear while the militia marched 
in quest of the negroes, who, by this time, had become 
much more formidable from their numbers. For fifteen 
miles they had spread desolation through all the planta- 
tions on their way. Fortunately, having found rum in 
some houses, and drinking freely of it, they halted and 
began to sing and dance. During these rejoicings the 
militia came up and took positions to prevent escape, then 
advancing and killing some, the remainder of the negroes 
dispersed and fled to the woods. Many ran back to the 
plantations to which they belonged in the hope of escap- 
ing suspicion of having joined in the rising ; but tlie 
greater part were taken and tried — some of them who 
had been compelled to join were pardoned ; the leaders 
suffered death. Twenty-one whites and forty -four negroes 
lost their lives in this insurrection. ^ 

The province was struck with consternation by this 
uprising of the slaves. The condition is thus described : ^ 
" On this occasion every breast was filled with concern. 
Evil brought home to us within our very doors awakened 
the attention of the most unthinking. Every one that had 
any relation, any tie of nature, every one that had a life to 
lose, was in the most possible manner shocked at such 

1 Hewatt makes this statement, but we have been able to find no such 
statute. The carrying arms to church was probably a custom, but not a law. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of iVo. Ca., vol. II, 270; He watt's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. II, 71. In an article on " Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 
1670-1770," Am. Hist. Ass. (1896), by the author of this work, the date 
of this insurrection is given as 1740. The correct date is as stated here, 
the 9th of September, 1739. 

8 Report of Com. of (i. A., 1740, on St. Augustine Expedition. Coll. 
Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. IV, 19. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 187 

danger daily hanging over their heads. With regret we 
bewailed our peculiar case that we could not enjoy the 
benefit of peace like the rest of mankind, and that our in- 
dustry should be the means of taking from us all the sweets 
of life, and of rendering us liable to the loss of our 
lives and fortunes. With indignation we looked at St. 
Augustine like another Sallee, that den of thieves and 
ruffians, receptacle of debtors, servants, and slaves ; bane 
of industry and society, and revolved in our minds all 
the injuries this province had received from thence ever 
since the first settlement." This insurrection it was be- 
lieved had been instigated by the Spaniards. To prevent 
further attempts Governor Bull sent an express to General 
Oglethorpe in Georgia urging him to double his vigilance 
and to seize all straggling Spaniards and negroes. A 
company of Rangers was employed to patrol the frontier 
and close up all passages by which they might make their 
escape to Florida. ^ 

When it is recollected how the Spaniards had resented 
every effort to extend the southern frontier of Carolina, 
how they had massacred the colony of Lord Cardross at 
Port Royal in 1686, and had instigated the Indian uprising 
to prevent the establishment of the town of Beaufort in 
1715, it Avill readily be supposed that they looked with 
still greater jealousy upon the attempt to plant another 
English colony on the south of the Savannah. But there 
were other far more serious and more general causes of 
increasing hostilities between the two nations. And about 
these there were causes of complaint on both sides. The 
prime cause on the side of the Spaniards was the illegal 
trade which the English colonies and the English vessels 
carried on with the colonial dependencies of Spain by 

^ Report of Committee on tlie St. Augustine Expedition, CoU. Hht^ 
Soc. of So. Ca., vol. IV, 19; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 110. 



188 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

which means her commerce was said to have been reduced 
to one-seventh of its tonnage and value. On the part of 
the British, the oppressive restrictions im[)osed on English 
bottoms trading in Spanish colonies, the interruption of 
her lawful traffic and the seizure and condemnation of her 
vessels to the great injury of her colonial commerce.^ 
The differences between the two nations arose very natu- 
rally from the fact that each was attempting to secure a 
monopoly of the colonial trade. Sir Robert Walpole, being 
entirely opposed to a war, had agreed to a convention to 
adjust all differences between the two kingdoms ; but the 
result was unsatisfactor}^ to both, and the King of Spain 
opened hostilities even before war was declared by order- 
ing seizures of British goods and vessels, and compelling 
the withdrawal of all British subjects from his dominions. 
King George met these orders by directing his subjects to 
make reprisals. 

But hostilities had already begun between the Geor- 
gians and the Spaniards at St. Augustine before the 
instructions of the King had been received. Oglethorpe 
had planted a garrison on the north bank of the St. John's 
River, where the river runs due east and west, which he 
called St. George's Fort, and stationed guard boats along 
the St. John's to patrol the river. This gave great offence 
to the Spaniards, whose ambassador at St. James now 
demanded the recall of Oglethorpe and renewed the claim 
of Spain to all the territory south of 36 degrees 50 minutes 
— in effect to all of South Carolina and Georgia. A 
Spanish commissioner came from St. Augustine, demand- 
ing that the English should evacuate all ports and towns 
south of the St. Helena. This demand — the increase of 
the garrison at St. Augustine, and of the Spanisli naval 
force— ^so impressed Oglethorpe that he sailed for England, 
1 Hist, of Georgia (Stevens), vol. I, 154. 



li 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 189 

arriving there in January, 1737. His representations of 
the condition of affairs and of the obvious hostile intention 
of the Spaniards, which were singuhirly corroborated by 
disclosures made by a double traitor and spy, determined 
the Royal government to take immediate steps for the 
protection of the colonies. Oglethorpe was appointed 
General of the forces in South Carolina and Georgia and 
Colonel of a regiment which he was authorized to raise. 
The regiment he mustered into service in a short time, 
officered it with gentlemen of family and character, at- 
tached to it twenty cadets whom he afterward promoted 
as vacancies happened, and in addition took out with him 
forty supernumeraries at his own expense. As soon as his 
regiment was organized and drilled, he sent out part of it 
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Cochran in the 
spring of 1738, which landing in Charlestown on the 3d 
of May proceeded at once to Fredrica, where a fort had 
previously been built by the General. On the 1st of July 
Oglethorpe, having received full instructions from the 
King, embarked with the remainder of the regiment on 
board the Hector and Blandford men-of-war and four 
transports. On the 9th of September they reached St. 
Simon's Island and disembarked amidst the salvos of 
artillery from the newly erected fort. 

During the absence of Oglethorpe, the southern settle- 
ments had been frequently menaced with invasion, and, 
before the news of the declaration of war was received, the 
hostilities of the ensuing campaign began. And now a 
party of Spaniards landed on Amelia Island and killed two 
unarmed men who were carrying wood, cut off their heads, 
and mangled their bodies ; but failing to surprise the fort, 
fled to their boats and escaped. Oglethorpe immediately 
manned all the boats with the H ighland Rangers, a detach- 
ment of his regiment, and, placing himself at their head, 



190 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

pursued the enemy to the St. John's, crossed that river, 
and advanced one day's march to St. Augustme. Return- 
ing to Fredrica, he sent Lieutenant Dunbar with forty 
soldiers and ten Indians up the St. John's, who attacked 
a fort tlie Sj^anish had built at Picolata ; ^ but, having 
no cannon, was obliged to retire with the loss of three 
wounded. Upon this. General Oglethorpe, embarking on 
the 1st of December, with a considerable party and sev- 
eral cannon, steered up the St. John's. A i^arty of Indian 
scouts had been sent before him, who, suddenly falling 
upon Picolata, surprised and burnt it before Oglethorpe 
with his forces arrived. Proceeding onward, Oglethorpe 
attacked Fort St. Francis on the opposite side of the river, 
and took it with all its munitions and its garrison as pris- 
oners of war. The success of this little expedition would 
have been of great value to the English had General 
Oglethorpe availed himself of its benefits, as it gave them 
the navigation of the St. John's, and was a serious loss to 
the Spaniards, as it cut off their communication with the 
west of Florida, and with the Appalachees and other 
friendly Indians. ^ 

Upon the receipt of his Majesty's orders, Oglethorpe at 
once addressed himself to the work of putting South Caro- 
lina and Georgia into a state of defence. His first step 
was to send an officer into the Cherokee nation to raise 
one thousand Indians to invade the Spanish territory, and 
another to the Creek nation, from which two hundred 
were to march into Florida. 

1 Picolata, oi- Picolati, situated on the east side of the St. John's River, 
twenty miles from St. Augustine ; remarkable for its ancient fort built by 
the Spaniards, with a square tower twenty feet high and deep ditch around 
it. Built with stone brought from St. Anastatia's Island. Forbes's Florida, 
81. In the Report of the Com. of the General Assembly, 1740, Picolata 
is said to be but fifteen miles from St. Augustine. By U. S. Survey, 
about eighteen uiiles. - Stevens's Ilist. of Geonjia, vol. I, 100, 162. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMEKT 191 

His next step was to inform Lieutenant Governor Bull, 
by letter of the 26th of September, of these measures, and 
to express the hope that the people of Carolina would give 
the necessary assistance to enable him at once to take St. 
Augustine before troops arrived there from Cuba. On the 
6th of October, 1739, he wrote, informing Governor Bull 
of fresh advices he had just received from England, and 
incidentally expressing the hope that the Assembly would 
come into his plan of taking this favorable opportunity 
of getting rid of their neighbors at St. Augustine. He 
writes again on the 20th, he should do the utmost in his 
power for taking St. Augustine before succors could come 
from Spain : " If we do not attack, we shall be attacked, 
I hope for your assistance with the Assembly, and should 
be glad to hear from you." ^ These letters were received 
while the people in South Carolina were in a state of 
consternation because of the insurrection of the negroes 
which had broken out, and the extent of which was not 
)'et known, nor yet whether it had been entirely sup- 
pressed. In the town, yellow" fever was raging, and many 
principal citizens sickening and dying of it. The perils 
and troubles at home were nearer and more pressing than 
those at St. Augustine. 

When the General Assembly met. Lieutenant Governor 
Bull communicated these letters to the two Houses, and a 
joint committee was at once appointed to take them into 
consideration. On the one hand, the great advantages 
which would accrue to the province by the reduction of 
St. Augustine were self-evident ; but, on the other, the 
Carolinians had already had some experience in relation 
to St. Augustine, and realized more fully than did Ogle- 
tliorpe the difficulties of the undertaking. Three times 

1 Keport of Com. of G. A., 1740, on St. Augustine Expedition. Coll. 
Hist. ISuc. So. of Ca., vol. IV, 20, 21, 138. 



192 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

already they had invaded Florida, and twice they had 
driven the Spaniards into the walls of the castle ; but on 
neither occasion had they been able to take the fortress. 
They did not wish to undertake another attempt until 
preparations had been made, which would insure its suc- 
cess. The present time was most inopportune, the colony 
had been greatly reduced by smallpox and yellow fever, 
and the disturbed condition of the negro population was a 
source of great anxiety. Could they afford at this time 
to be sending away a large force — and a large force they 
knew was necessary for the reduction of St. Augustine? 
But, notwithstanding these doubts and difficulties, the 
committee found themselves not left entirely free in their 
consideration of the subject. General Oglethorpe had, 
at the outset, committed a great mistake — a mistake aris- 
ing from his ignorance of the Indian character and want 
of experience in their modes of warfare. His attempt to 
raise the Cherokees and the Creeks before his own forces 
were ready, was premature and most unwise. The com- 
mittee, who understood the Indians, found themselves in 
the dilemma of being unprepared for immediate action, 
and yet, realizing that if the Indians came down and found 
them not ready for war, the chances were that they would 
join the Spaniards and turn upon the colonists. At best, 
it would render it probably imjjossible ever after to pre- 
vail with the Indians to join them again. The Creeks, 
they had reason to believe, were already wavering. Proba- 
bly influenced to a large extent by this consideration, the 
committee determined to recommend that if General Ogle- 
thorpe would communicate his scheme to the General As- 
sembly, and make it appear to them that there was a 
probability of success, that the province would give him 
the best assistance tliey reasonably could. This report of 
the committee was agreed to by both Houses, and at once 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 193 

communicated to General Oglethorpe by the Lieutenant 
Governor. Tlie General, on the 29th of December, 1739, 
sent in his estimate of what he thought reasonable and 
necessary for this province to furnish. In this estimate 
he did not mention the number of men, but it was under- 
stood that he expected a force of six hundred. He men- 
tioned that he could march four hundred of his regiment, 
and leave a sufficient garrison behind him ; that he had 
ordered eight troops of twenty men each to be raised, 
though he had got but twelve horses for them ; that he 
would have one thousand Indians ; that the Cherokees had 
promised to be down in March, and the Creeks he expected 
at the same time. The General went at length into the 
inducements which presented themselves for immediate 
action. He did not allude to that, however, which had the 
most influence with the committee, namely, that he had 
already practically committed them by bringing out the 
Indians before consulting them. 

On the 4th of February, 1739-10, the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor sent to the House two other communications from 
the General, in one of which, dated the 23d of January, he 
informed his Honor of the capture of the two forts, Pico- 
lata on the east side of the St. John's, and St. Francis on 
the west ; and in the other he stated that from prisoners 
he had learned that St. Augustine had been greatly 
strengthened, and urged that the longer the attack was 
dehtyed, the stronger it would be. He accompanied this 
letter with another estimate of the assistance he desired. 
The Assembly having considered these estimates found that 
the cost would be ,£200,192.10, which they could not then 
afford, but agreed that if the General would certify to the 
Assembly that there was a probability of success at an 
expense of £120,000, the province would furnish that 
sum. LTpon learning of this General Oglethorpe, having 
VOL. n — o 



194 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

posted his forces in such a manner as to secure the frontier 
during his absence, came to Cliarlestown on the 23d of 
March to confer witli the Governor and Assembly. On 
the 29th he sent in a communication accepting the offer 
of assistance to the amount of X120,000, as that was all 
that could be done, and stating that with that sum he 
would undertake the attempt, and that Captain Pearce 
of the Royal Navy had assured him that if they were 
ready in fourteen days he would assist the undertaking. 
This the committees of Assembly were unanimously of 
opinion was impossible, and, understanding that the enter- 
prise would not otherwise be undertaken, requested the 
General to state what supplies would be necessary to keep 
the war on the other side of the St. John's River. But 
Oglethorpe was persistent in his purpose for an immedi- 
ate attack upon St. Augustine, and a conference was held, 
at which the General, Captain Pearce, in command of his 
Majesty's ships in these parts, and Captain Warren, also 
of the navy, with many members of the two Houses, 
were present. At this conference General Oglethorpe 
represented to the committee that he had private intelli- 
gence from St. Augustine that the place was in great 
want of provisions ; that it \vas certain that a great part 
of the garrison would desert to him as soon as he should 
appear there ; and that he did not doubt making himself 
master of the town the first night. That the great num- 
ber of women and children who would be forced into the 
castle must necessarily distress the garrison, which, being 
immediately followed by throwing in several bombs, would 
undoubtedly produce a speedy surrender. Captain Pearce 
promised to give all the assistance in his power to the en- 
terprise, declaring that he would answer for it, the place 
would have no relief by sea, and that " they ought all to 
be hanged if they did not take it in a very short time." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 195 

These were fresh and strong inducements, says the 
Report from which we quote : here was a scheme that 
appeared rational and highly probable of being attended 
with success. It readily occurred to the committee what 
glorious success had often crowned attempts of such a 
nature merely from their suddenness and vigorous execu- 
tion. They had the examples of Colonel Daniel and Colo- 
nel Palmer, who, though not bred soldiers, yet led on by 
their own courage, happily effected all sudden attempts 
which they made. In this they were to have a general 
who professed to have learned the first rudiments of war 
under Prince Eugene, a regiment of King's Troop, five 
men-of-war certainly, viz. : the Flafiibom-gh, Commodore 
Pearce ; the Squirrel^ Captain Warren ; the Phoenix, 
Captain Transhaw ; the Tartar, Captain Townshend — all 
twenty-gun ships ; the Spruce Sloop, Captain Lanes ; and 
three more expected in time, viz. : the Colchester, Cap- 
tain Simonds, of fifty guns ; the Hector, Sir Yelverton 
Peyton, of forty guns ; and the Wolf Sloop, Captain 
Dandridge, also a large body of Indians besides their 
own forces. Induced by these reasons, and fired also with 
some ambition of sharing in the glory of his Majesty's 
arms, the committee recommended to the House to assist 
General Oglethorpe in making an immediate attack upon 
St. Augustine. Both Houses and the General having 
come to agreement as to the assistance to be given, an 
act was passed for the purpose on the 5th of April. Com- 
missioners were appointed to borrow £2000 sterling and 
to stamp and sign orders to the amount of £25,000 cur- 
rency for defraying the expenses of the expedition. A 
regiment of four hundred men was raised to serve for 
four months instead of three, as the General had last pro- 
posed. In addition to this the regiment, at the request of 
several gentlemen of position in the country, offered their 



196 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

services. Lieutenant Governor Bull commissioned Richard 
Wright 1 to command them with instructions to obey the 
General in all times of action. This company consisted of 
forty-seven men, viz. : thirty-two gentlemen, fifteen coun- 
try born, expert, trusty negroes, and with these served 
eight settlement Indians. Lest the force should not prove 
sufficient, an additional two hundred men were authorized 
for the regiment. 

It was stipulated by General Oglethorpe that the Caro- 
lina regiment was to be deemed auxiliary to him, and as 
a distinct body belonging to the province of South Caro- 
lina, subject to the orders of its government. That in 
councils of war the officers of this regiment should have 
equal votes with the officers of the same rank in General 
Oglethorpe's regiment, but should give place and pre- 
cedence to his officers of the same rank. That offences 
committed by any of the South Carolina troops should 
be punished by the officers of their own regiment only. 
Tliat the plunder taken should be distributed by a coun- 
cil of war consisting of officers of the Carolina regiment 
as well as of officers of Oglethorpe's. It was expressly 
provided that negroes who had deserted from South Caro- 
lina and who might be recaptured were not to be deemed 
plunder, but should be returned to the Governor of South 
Carolina, for which salvage should be allowed the captors. 

The officers of the regiment were Alexander Vander 
Dussen, Colonel ; Francis Le Jau, Lieutenant Colonel ; 
and Charles Colleton, Major. Little is known of Colonel 
Vander Dussen before this time. He had been in the 
colony as earl}'- as 1731, for he then owned lands, and in 
1734 was on tlie Commission of the Peace. At this time 
he was a member of the House of Commons for St. James, 

1 Richard Wright was a son of Chief Justice Robert Wright, who had 
died the year before of yellow fever. 



1\ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 197 

Goose Creek. Like Oglethorpe, he had probably seen ser- 
vice in foreign wars, and was esteemed in consequence a 
soldier of experience. It was on this account, it is sup- 
posed, that he was given the position; for there is no 
reason otherwise why he should have been placed in 
command of the regiment.^ Lieutenant Colonel Le Jau 
was the son of the Rev. Francis Le Jau, who had been 
sent out as a missionary by the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in 1706, and was the minister at Goose 
Creek. 2 Major Charles Colleton was the son of Charles 
Colleton, a member of the Proprietor's family of that name. 

The forces agreed to be furnished were completed within 
a month from the passing of the act, sooner than was ex- 
pected, and were dispatched to the General at Fort George 
from time to time as they were raised. 

Governor Bull, besides the men thus furnished, pur- 
chased a large schooner v/ith fourteen carriage guns and 
twelve swivels, which might go where the men-of-war 
could not. She was manned with fifty-four men, and in 
order to make her as serviceable as possible, he gave the 
command of her to Mr. Tyrrel, Captain Warren, Second 

^ Colonel Vander Dussen continued a member of the Commons for 
many years, and was subsequently one of the King's Council. He died 
in 1759, in England, leaving no family here. He lived in great style in 
a house built by him at Goose Creek, which, after his death, was deserted 
and said to have been haunted. The probability is that it became the 
resort of runaway negroes who were interested in spreading the report. 
It was a common thing to hear negroes say, " If you go there Old Ban- 
dison will catch you." He is said to have been a severe master ; hence 
probably the negro saying. The house was afterward rebuilt and occu- 
pied by William Johnson of Revolutionary memory, who reared there a 
large family of children and grandchildren, undisturbed by ghosts. Among 
them were the Hon. William Johnson, Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the U. S. , another the late Edward McCrady, the father of the 
author of this work. ^4 Day on Cooper Eiver, J. B. Irving, 21-23. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 439-458. 



198 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Lieutenant, with directions to obey the orders of the com- 
modore. He furnished also twelve eighteen-pounders for 
the armament of the expedition. ^ Colonel Vander Dussen 
embarked on the 9th, and set sail on the 12th for Florida. 
Having made these preparations. Lieutenant Governor 
Bull, on May 17, issued his proclamation setting apart 
and appointing Wednesday, the 28th, to be observed as 
a day of fasting and humiliation by the several ministers 
and the congregations throughout the province to implore 
the blessing and assistance of Almighty God in their 
endeavors against his Majesty's enemies.^ 

1 Report of Com. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. IV, 31. 
' So. Ca. Gazette, May 17, 1740. 



u 



MAP OF OGLETHORPE'S 

FIELD OF OPERATIONS IN FLORIDA, 

1740 




jiartell 

Augiistine 
Inlet 



"T 



III 



i 



osata iiol 



a » e s r 




CHAPTER XII 

1740 

There has been much controversy concerning the ex- 
pedition conducted by General Oglethorpe against St. 
Augustine. It resulted in ignominious failure, and his 
panegyrists have endeavored to shield his fame from the 
effects of the disaster by attributing its results in various 
ways to the faults of the Carolinian auxiliaries. The 
General Assembly appears to have anticipated this, and 
immediately upon the return of their regiment instituted 
an investigation. A committee was appointed for this 
purpose in July, 1740, which consisted of the most intel- 
ligent and respectable men of the province. ^ This com- 
mittee devoted near twelve months to the subject, and 
in their report, which was made in July, 1741, they in- 
corporated the official correspondence between General 
Oglethorpe, Colonel Vander Dussen, and the naval officers, 
together with the sworn statements of the persons ex- 
amined by them. Strange to say, this report has lain 
mouldering in the archives of the province and State, 
while the discussion has been carried on and historians 
have espoused the one side or the other without reference 
to the record and testimony taken at the time for the pur- 
pose of preserving a truthful account of the unfortunate 

1 The committee consisted of the Attorney General, Colonel Miles 
Brewton, Major William Pinckney, Messrs. Dart, Mazyck, Drayton, 
Motte, Elliott, Captains Hyrne, Morris, Austin, Hon. John Fenwicke, 
John Colleton, Edmund Atkin. 

199 



200 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

expedition. The report has, however, recently been pub- 
lished in full,^ and the historian of to-day has, to aid him 
in forming his conclusions, this document, which at least 
gives the carefully prepared statement of the Carolinian 
side of the controversy. 

The St. John's, or St, Juan's, River, as it was first 
called, taking its rise somewhere near the latitude of 27 
degrees, flows directly north until it reaches the site of 
the present city of Jacksonville, wdiere it turns abruptly 
east, emptying into the ocean about ten miles from the 
point at which it makes its turn. The eastern coast of 
Florida is thus made into a secondary peninsula, cut oft", 
as it were, from the great peninsula which forms that 
territory. 

Two rivers, which run close along the coast, take their 
rise in the Diego Plains some twenty-five miles from the 
point where the St. John's empties into the ocean; one of 
them, the River Pablo, or Pal)lo Creek, runs north, parallel 
with the coast and with the St. John's, into which it flows 
after that river has taken its eastern turn to the sea ; the 
other, the St. Mark's, now known as the North or Tolomato 
River, runs south until it unites with the Matansas River 
in front of St. Augustine. The ridge which divides these 
rivers, then known as the Diego Plains, afforded the most 
luxuriant pasture for cattle, and presents an extensive 
view of meadow, a vast expanse of perpetual verdure 
interspersed with clusters of small-topped trees surround- 
ing swamps, the sea in front to the east, and an inter- 
mediate line of sand hills in the rear to the west. The 
St. Mark's or North River is navigable for small craft 
nearly to the plains, and a ditch or canal of five miles 
would connect it with Pablo River, and thus form a con- 
tinuous inland waterway from St. Augustine to the mouth 

1 See Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. IV, 1-178. 



u 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 201 

of the St. John's. 1 St. Augustine is situated about forty- 
five miles below the mouth of the St. John's, at a distance 
of about three miles from the sea. The castle was built 
of soft stone Avith four bastions, a curtain 60 yards in 
length, parapet 9 feet, rampart 20 feet high, casemated 
and arched over, with bomb proofs — at this time just 
made. The fort had 50 pieces of cannon mounted on it, 
16 of which were brass, and some twenty-four pounders. 
The town was intrenched with 10 salient angles, on each 
of which were some cannon. The Spanish forces in Florida 
consisted of 1324 men besides militia and Indians. ^ 

On the east side of the St. John's, twenty miles from 
St. Augustine, was the ancient Fort Picolata, built by the 
Spaniards, with a square tower thirty feet high and a deep 
ditch around it, which Oglethorpe had taken and burnt 
in December. A road ran up the eastern peninsula be- 
tween the St. John's and the sea from St. Ausfustine to 
St. Juan, which was the northernmost settlement of the 
Spaniards on the east coast of Florida, and which was 
situated on the southern bank of the St. John's River. 
Fort St. George, which Ogletliorpe had built, and which 
was indeed the present cause of the Spaniards' anger, was 
just opposite St. Juan, the width of the river between 
the two points being nine miles. ^ Fort St. George was 
the place fixed upon for the rendezvous of Oglethorpe's 
forces, but no definite time was determined u]3on. As 

1 Forbes' s Florida, 78-83. 

^ Gentleman'' s Magazine for 1740, vol. X, 242 : one troop of Horse, 100 ; 
one company of Artillery, 100; three independent companies of Old 
Troops, 300 ; two companies of the Regiment of Asturias, 106 ; one com- 
pany of Valencia, 53 ; one company of Calatoma, 53 ; two companies of 
Caiitatria, 100 ; two companies of Marcia, 106 ; armed negroes, 200 ; 
white transports for labor, 200 ; militia of inhabitants, Indians, the num- 
ber uncertain. 

3 Roberts's Hist, of Florida (London, 1765), 25; Forbes's Florida, 



202 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the General Assembly of South Carolina, uneasy about the 
negroes at home, had refused to allow many of the men of 
the province to leave at this time, and to fill the regiment 
had depended upon recruiting in North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, much time was lost in organizing the expedition. 

It was understood and stipulated that Colonel Vander 
Dussen was to be taken into consultation upon the con- 
duct of the campaign, and in such consultation Captain 
Pearce, it Avas also supposed, would take part, but Ogle- 
thorpe paid little attention to this condition. On the 9th 
of Ma}^ he inaugurated the campaign, without consulting 
or advising with either Colonel Vander Dussen or Cap- 
tain Pearce. It will be recollected that one of the reasons 
which he urged upon the Carolina government for action 
at this time was that he had taken and destroyed the fort 
at Picolata, and thus commanded the St. John's River. 
The road to St. Augustine, it was represented, was by the 
way of Picolata, but fifteen or twenty miles distant from 
that point, whereas the way from St. Juan, opposite Fort 
St. George, was forty-five miles long, over a rough, sandy 
road, upon which artiller}^ and provisions could be trans- 
ported only with the greatest labor and difficulty, as the 
expedition was without horses, and the guns had to be 
hauled by the men, and upon which there was great 
scarcity of water, nor was that good which was to be had. 
With the large naval force at hand upon which he could 
call for assistance; with the sailing craft furnished by 
South Carolina, viz. three sloops, fourteen schooners, and 
deck boats armed with swivel guns, besides his own craft, 
— it was supposed he could safely and expeditiously 
have transported his whole force, when collected, down the 
St. John's to Picolata within an easy day's march upon 
good roads to the point of destination, which he would 
thus assail in the rear, while the navy, which Captain 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 203 

Peaice had assured the committee of the Assembly would 
prevent any relief by sea, would carry out that promise. 
This was the plan, the committee say, which was urged 
upon General Oglethorpe while in Charlestown ; nor had 
he forgotten it, but, as he informed Colonel Barnwell, he 
did not approve it, lest the leaving the sight of the men-of- 
war should discourage his men.^ 

Deciding upon the long march down the peninsula be- 
tween the St. John's and the sea, on the 9th of May, 1740, 
General Oglethorpe, with what forces had just then arrived 
at Fort St. George, the general rendezvous agreed on, 
passed over from thence into Florida and encamped oppo- 
site on the Spanish side of the St. John's River. This 
force consisted of about 220 men of his own regiment, in- 
cluding an Independent Highland company, 125 men of 
the Carolina regiment, being the first detachment, under 
the command of Caj)tain Lieutenant Maxwell and Ensign 
Blamyer, and 103 Indians, of which nine were Creeks, the 
rest Cherokees, there being no field officers of either of 
the regiments present. The Indians, sent out to recon- 
noitre the country, brought in a negro prisoner late at 
night, and gave an account of a fort they had seen about 
halfway to St. Augustine. Leaving the sick, a number 
of whom there were already-, twenty of his own regiment, 

1 Report of Com. G. A. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. IV, 119. 
This Colonel Barnwell was Nathaniel Barnwell, son of Colonel John 
Barnwell, who was serving General Oglethorpe as a volunteer aid. The 
plan of campaign, by the way of the St. John's River, landing at Pico- 
lata and attacking the castle from the rear, was that which had been so 
successfully pursued by Colonel Daniel in 1702, and which then only 
failed because Colonel Daniel was abandoned by Governor Moore, who 
had come by sea. HisL of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 381. 
In this respect, the circumstances of the two disastrous expeditions, that 
of 1702 and that of 1740, were alike. In both cases the expedition failed 
because abandoned by the naval forces. 



204 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and twenty five of the Carolinians, nnder the command of 
an ensign, to gnard the transports, consisting of two of his 
own sloops and four of the Carolina schooners, on board of 
which were the ammunition and provisions, and taking 
with him a four-pounder and some swivel guns, Ogle- 
thorpe on the morning of the 10th marched out of the 
camp, with two hundred of the King's troops, one hundred 
Carolinians, and one hundred Indians, with six days' pro- 
visions, to attack the fort which the Indians had found. 
He encamped that night at Lacaweld,^ or Lacanola, the first 
palmetto hut on the sea-beach, about sixteen miles distant, 
where he was obliged to leave his guns, the sands being 
deep, and having no horses to draw them. From Lacanola 
he dispatched Lieutenant Maxwell with a party of regular 
troops and of Carolinians, and one Mr. Brown with a party 
of Cherokees, to invest the fort, which was about nine miles 
farther. On the 11th this party, at break of day, attacked 
the fort, and burnt a house near by, but were obliged to 
retire from the Spaniards' fire. The General came up 
about two o'clock in the afternoon with the rest of the troops 
and surrounded the fort. The next morning he sent in a 
Spanish prisoner with a drum to summon the garrison, 
which thereupon offered to treat. It was necessar}^ how- 
ever, to consult the troops before he could propose the 
terms he desired to offer; for it had been stipulated that 
plunder should be distributed by councils of war, of which 
the officers of the Carolina regiment should be members. 
The consent of all interested was, however, readily given, 
and the garrison surrendered as prisoners of war upon the 
condition that their baggage should not be plundered ; that 
Seignior Diego Spinola, to whom the fort belonged, should 

1 Lacanola was situated on the ridge of the Diego Plains, which extend 
to the sea, and was thus near the head waters of the Pablo River on the 
one hand, and the St. Mark's on the other. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 205 

hold his slaves and other property wliicli had not already- 
been plundered in the field; but that no deserters nor negro 
runaways from Carolina should have benefit of the capitu- 
lation. The prisoners thus taken consisted of about fifty 
men, some of whom were negroes, and Don Diego Spinola 
himself, who was a mulatto. Lieutenant Dunbar of the 
General's regiment, and Lieutenant Saussure^ of the Caro- 
lina regiment, with a party, were detailed to take posses- 
sion of the fort, and found there nine swivel guns and two 
carriage guns of two-pound shot, beside small arms. This 
place, which bore the dignified name of Fort Diego, was 
really nothing more than a cow-pen belonging to Don Diego 
Spinola, who kept there a large stock of cattle on the fer- 
tile plains which derived their name from his. From this 
stock Diego supplied the garrison at St. Augustine with 
cattle, on which account the Governor of St. Augustine 
allowed him a guard of a sergeant and sixteen men to 
protect his stock from the Lidians. This guard was re- 
leased weekly, and it happened that the relieving party 
had come in the night before, and thus there were twice 
the usual number of soldiers present when the place was 
attacked and surrendered. The place was important as a 
source of supply to the garrison at St. Augustine, which 
was thus broken up, and as a resting-place between the 
St. John's and St. Augustine, if this was to be the route 
of the expedition, as it was about halfway between the 
two points, and near the head waters of the St. Mark's 
River, which afforded an inland watercourse for small 
craft to St. Augustine. The capture of this station was 
magnified into a great victory — the taking of a fort.^ It 
was a small affair, of consequence only from the foregoing 
considerations. There was an unfortunate consequence 

1 This was Henri De Saussure, tlie emigrant and founder of the family 
of tliat name in South Carolina. ^ Orentleman^s Magazine, vol. X, 575. 



206 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

attending it, and that was the favor into which the 
mulatto, Seignior Diego, ingratiated himself with the 
General, which was soon to alienate his Indian allies ; and 
by Diego the General was to be ultimately betrayed. 

Leaving Lieutenant Dunbar with a garrison of fifty men 
in the fort, around which he had marked out an intrench- 
ment, the General returned to St. John's, directing the 
rest of the party to follow him leisurely with the prisoners. 
In the meanwhile the rest of the forces were slowly gather- 
ing at Fort St. George. By the 18th of May Colonel 
Vander Dussen, Lieutenant Colonel Le Jau, and Major 
Colleton had arrived with another part of the Carolina 
regiment. On the afternoon of the 20th the General 
ordered a beat to arms, and upon Colonel Vander Dussen 
inquiring the cause, was informed that the Spaniards had 
sallied out to recover Fort Diego, and had actually in- 
vested the place. Major Herron of the General's regi- 
ment was sent forward immediately with fifty men, and 
the rest were ordered to march at break of da}' on the 21st. 
Diego, whom the General had set at liberty, had obtained 
an agreement from him that all his cattle that should be 
killed should be paid for at the same price as the King of 
Spain had paid for the use of them by the garrison at St. 
Augustine, and he was himself employed to go out with 
his people to hunt for cattle, which were also to be paid 
for at a certain price per head for all delivered. Diego 
was thus employed independently, and in opposition to 
Captain William Palmer, who with ten Carolinians had 
been engaged for this service. An order was also pub- 
lished forbidding any person to purchase horses from the 
Indians, so that not even the officers of either regiment 
could have any to carry their baggage. 

On the morning of the 21st the General marched out 
with all his forces, excepting two companies, one of his 



■^k 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 207 

own and one of the Carolina regiment, which were left 
as a garrison a-t the St. John's. The day was intensely 
hot and the march over the sands most arduous and 
fatiguing. One hundred men fainted and dropped by the 
way from heat and want of water. Two of the General's 
regiment died. Both regiments halted at sunset at Laca- 
nola. The General himself, with the Highland company, 
hurried on, overtook Major Herron, and arrived in sight 
of Fort Diego before sunset, only to find the information 
upon which the hurried march had been made to have been 
mistaken. The rest of the troops came later during the 
night, dragging the gun which had been left there in the 
sand a few days before, having had Diego Spinola for their 
guide under the General's direction. The distance was 
but nine miles ; but Diego was in no hurry to get them to 
the fort ; so, taking them out of the way, he marched them 
about until one in the morning. In the meanwhile the 
prisoners taken at Fort Diego were carried to the St. 
John's; but being very loosely guarded, some of them 
escaped ; the rest were put aboard the man-of-war. 

It is difficult to follow General Oglethorpe in all his 
movements at this time. His course was most erratic. 
Without apparently any well-considered and determined 
plan, he raced up and down the peninsula of forty-five 
miles between the St. John's and St. Augustine, to the 
dismay and disgust of his officers and the breaking down 
even of the Indians. On the 21st, taking with him 
Colonel Vander Dussen, Lieutenant Colonel Cook, and 
Captain Norburry on horseback, a few Highlanders, and 
some Indians, he proceeded to make a personal recon- 
noissance to St. Augustine, twenty miles distant. With 
such speed did he travel, notAvithstanding the great heat 
of the weather, that the Indians gave out before tliey got 
halfway; then the Highlanders dropped by the way, one 



208 HlSTOliy OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of them dying. Lieutenant Colonel Cook and Captain 
Norbuny, both elderly men, faint from heat and want of 
water, were ordered back. Colonel Vander Dussen and 
Major Herron kept up, however, with the General, and 
reached a point within three miles of St. Augustine, in 
sight of the Island Anastatia. Having viewed the ground, 
without resting, the party returned to Fort Diego that 
night, having left their horses, at last unable to carry them. 
The next day, the 22d, the General was off again to the 
camp at St. John's, whither Lieutenant Colonel Cook had 
gone before to look after ammunition and provisions. 
Three or four days were spent between the St. John's and 
Fort Diego, with marching and countermarching. Then 
two of the Spanish prisoners taken at Fort Diego were 
sent by the General to St. Augustine with letters to en- 
courage the men of that garrison to desert, and promising 
them good usage. They naturally, however, preferred the 
company of their own friends to that of the General, how- 
ever well entertained by him they had been, and did not 
themselves return. They of course carried full and accu- 
rate accounts of the small numbers and the confused con- 
dition of affairs in Oglethorpe's camp to the Spanish 
garrison. 

On the evening of the 27th the General began another 
reconnoissance to St. Augustine, this time with some 
force. Taking with him one hundred men of his regi- 
ment, and Lieutenant Jonathan Bryan with six of the 
gejitlemen volunteers from Carolina, and a party of Ind- 
ians, and marching all night, he came about daybreak 
within five or six miles of St. Augustine, and seeing smoke 
from some scattered houses, he ordered Lieutenant Bryan 
with the six Carolinian volunteers to attack them. This 
the volunteers promptly did, entered and searched the 
houses, and brought back two negro prisoners, who turned 



-_ Ji 



UNDER THE PwOYAL GOVERNMENT 204) 

out to be runaways from Carolina. "Well," said the 
General, " 1 see the Carolina men have courage, but no 
conduct." To which Lieutenant Bryan replied, "Sir, the 
conduct is yours." The volunteers proposed to burn the 
houses, but this the General refused to permit, saying 
they would serve for the inhabitants he proposed to bring 
there. Then a difference arose about the disposition of 
the negro prisoners. The negroes, belonging to Caro- 
linians, were under the stipulations returnable to their 
owners upon paying five pounds sterling per head to the 
captor. The volunteers proposed to j)ay one-half salvage 
and keep them, or to receive one-half salvage and give 
them up. It does not appear what authority the volun- 
teers had for this proposed modification of the stipulations, 
but the General solved the problem by refusing either 
proposition and retaining one negro himself. There were 
other causes of offence : the General had taken from the 
volunteers horses they had caught to carry their baggiige ; 
and although cattle were very i)lentiful, they could obtain 
no fresh meat, he requiring that Diego Spinola should be 
paid for all cattle killed. The party returned to Fort 
Diego late on the night of the 29th in no good humor. 

Colonel Vander Dussen in the meanwhile having super- 
intended the transportation of provisions in boats by way 
of Pablo over to the Palmetto Hut, marched on the 29tli 
from the camp at St. John's, leaving nothing there but the 
transports and provisions. At Fort Diego General Ogle- 
thorpe reviewed the part of the Carolina regiment that had 
arrived, when it was found by the Field Return that there 
were 378 men present, besides field officers, volunteers, 
and cadets. 

A considerable defection of Indians took place about this 
time. A party of the Creeks led by Thomas Jones, a half- 
breed, who was employed as an interpreter to the Creeks 

VOL. II P 



210 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and Eucliees, tired with constant fatigue in ranging day 
and night for nearly three weeks, going only backward 
and forward, and disheartened that there was no prospect 
of attacking St. Augustine, left and returned home. 
Jones himself, however, came back. The General had 
ordered Jones to keep out constantly scouting, watching 
the enemy, and taking prisoners, but positively enjoined 
him not to allow the Indians to destroy any houses. Jones 
warned him that the Indians would soon tire of that way 
of proceeding, for they loved to go and do their business 
at once and return home. To which the General had 
replied that if they had a mind to go, to let them go. 
The Cherokees also- grew weary and dissatisfied because 
the General had showed anger because of their killing 
some of Diego's cattle. Caesar, one of the head men, said 
it was a strange thing that they were permitted to kill 
the Spaniards but not their cattle, and threatened to carry 
all his men home. 

Three weeks had now been spent in marching to and 
fro, from St. John's to Lacanola, from Lacanola to Fort 
Diego, from Diego to St. Augustine. An advance upon 
the fortress with all his force was now determined upon, 
and in the evening of the 31st the movement began. The 
General marched out of his camp with three hundred men, 
including the Highland company and rangers, with the 
Indians, taking a four-pounder drawn by soldiers, and for 
a guide a Spanish negro styled Captain Jack, who had de- 
serted from St. Augustine, or had pretended to have clone 
so. Colonel Vander Dussen followed with about four 
hundred of his regiment, including volunteers and cadets. 
The march was tedious, and atone o'clock in the morning 
the army halted, having marched about twelve miles. On 
the 1st of June the march was resumed with like diffi- 
culties. Before day on the 2d they reached a point within 



i\ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 211 

two miles of St. Augustine, where the path divided, the 
way leading to the right to the castle, and the other to 
the Fort Moosa. The army moved a little way to the 
left, where it halted. 

At General Oglethorpe's request Colonel William 
Palmer, the boy hero of 1715, and the brilliant and suc- 
cessful leader of the invasion of 1727, had accompanied 
him as a volunteer aid. On the march Colonel Palmer 
had proposed to the General that upon their arrival he 
should allow him, with a party of the Carolinians, at once 
to attack and burn the town, which would force the in- 
habitants into the castle, and thus compel a surrender for 
want of provisions. This, it will be recollected, was the 
plan which Oglethorpe himself had proposed to the com- 
mittee of the General Assembly of South Carolina when 
he was appealing to that body for assistance ; but strange 
to say, now that the opportunity offered, he hesitated. 
Upon reaching Fort Moosa Colonel Palmer again offered 
to go in at the head of two hundred Carolinians and a party 
of Indians and burn the town. The General refused the offer, 
saying it was too hot-headed and hazardous an action ; that 
he knew what to do ; that it was the custom of armies to 
show themselves to the enemy first, and make a feint. 

At daybreak Fort Moosa, which had been abandoned, 
was entered. This fort, about twenty miles from Fort 
Diego and about two from St. Augustine, was in the 
middle of a plantation. It was a square work with a 
Hanker at each corner, banked round with earth, having 
a ditch on all sides lined with the prickly palmetto or 
Spanish bayonet. It had a well and house within and a 
lookout. As soon as the forces were perceived from the 
castle, a fire was opened upon them. At eight or nine 
o'clock General Oglethorpe with Colonel Vander Dussen 
reconnoitred and ordered a party with drums to advance 



212 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and to beat the Grenadier's march ; wliich being accord- 
ingly done, was answered at once by the cannon from the 
castle. The General and Colonel Vander Dussen found 
the castle a regular fortification and very strong, with 
many new additions, and agreed that it would be imprac- 
ticable to attack it upon that side without materials they 
could not bring by land, but they observed that Point 
Quartell, which lies on the north of the bar and separated 
from the negro Fort Moosa by the St. Mark's River, would 
be a very fit place to establish a battery and open com- 
munication with the men-of-war. While this reconnois- 
sance was going on, however. Lieutenant Bryan of the 
Volunteers, with three or four rangers, made a dash to the 
town and brought off three horses. He found and reported 
the towai in the utmost tumult and confusion, the inhabit- 
ants screaming and crying, and he too urged Oglethorpe 
that this was the time to attack the town ; that if he failed 
to do so now, the Spaniards would make preparations 
against his return ; but the General replied that if he 
attempted to storm the town he would lose three hundred 
men. The army was all ready and anxious for the assault ; 
they only asked to be led. Deserters, too, reported that 
the government had ordered the inhabitants, in case of an 
attack, to retire to the castle. But Oglethorpe would not 
allow the attack to be made. In the dark of the evening- 
he went out again with 150 men and a great many drums, 
beating marches. Then breaching the walls of Fort 
Moosa, taking away the gate, and burning the house in 
the fort, he turned back again, and, as he reported, 
marched with drums beating and colors flying, reaching 
Fort Diego before sunset on the 3d of June. 

Dissatisfied with the treatment they had received, dis- 
appointed in their expectation of attacking St. Augus- 
tine, and uneasy at the condition of affairs at home, all 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 213 

the Carolina volunteers, except Colonel Barnwell, who 
was acting as an aid to the General, and one other, deter- 
mined to return home, and on the 5th went to St. John's 
for the purpose ; but there meeting with Captain Wright 
and the rest of the companj^, just arrived, they proceeded 
no farther in the homeward direction, but joining their 
new comrades returned to duty. 

The Tartar man-of-war now came to anchor off the 
Palmetto Hut, to water, and deliver a letter from the com- 
modore to General Olgethorpe, whereupon Colonel Vander 
Dussen was ordered to march with the Carolina regiment 
to take possession of Point Quartell, which he did that 
evening, with no more provisions than were sufficient for 
the next day, and for want of horses, these and the tents 
were carried by the men. The regiment proceeded down 
to the sea, and then marched along the beach, reaching 
Point Quartell at about six o'clock on the morning of the 
6th. This point was at the extremity of the tongue of 
land between the sea and the St. Mark's River. It was 
in sight of the castle and supposed to be within cannon 
shot; the regiment was therefore placed behind a range of 
sand hills, which offered protection. Lying in sight off 
the bar were four men-of-war, the Flambourgh, Hector, 
Squirrel, and Phcenix. There was a demonstration that 
afternoon on the part of the Spaniards. Their galleys 
came out as if to attack, and opened fire, but their shot 
fell short, and upon Colonel Vander Dussen moving his 
regiment to meet them, they retired under fire from the 
castle. There were no casualties. 

The guns of the castle told the commodore. Captain 
Pearce, of the arrival of the regiment, and he at once sent 
a communication to Colonel Vander Dussen, giving the 
resolution of a council of war which had been held by the 
commanders of his Majesty's ships off the bar of St. Augus- 



214 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tine, which he desired Colonel Vander Dussen at once to 
forward to General Oglethorpe. This communication, 
which was forwarded as desired, informed the General 
that the naval council of war had unanimously decided 
that they could not stay longer than the 5th of July, be- 
cause of the hurricane season, and that in case the easterly 
winds set in, they must depart sooner. That if General 
Oglethorpe would besiege the fortress, they would, how- 
ever, spare two hundred men to attack and take possession 
of the Island of Eustatia, or Anastatia, which they re- 
garded as necessary to the reduction of the castle, as it 
would cut off communication by the sea, and which would 
render the presence of the ships unnecessary till the season 
of the year would admit of their returning to the service. 
General Oglethorpe was understood to have expressed 
himself entirely satisfied with this action on the part of 
the navy. He sent to the Commodore for two vessels to 
take him and two hundred of his men to Anastatia Island. 
In the meanwhile Colonel Vander Dussen, left without 
provisions and without horses for transportation, was 
obliged to apply to the Commodore for immediate assist- 
ance, and to the General, begging that supplies should be 
sent him by water; he wrote also remonstrating against the 
proposed movement to Anastatia Island, as leaving him 
exposed to the galleys at St. Augustine, and urging the 
importance of the position he occupied at Point Quartell. 
In the meantime General Oglethorpe, still at Fort 
Diego, ordered a detachment to take position at Fort 
Moosa. This detachment consisted of Captain Mcintosh, 
with the Independent Highland company of about 60 
men, a sergeant and 12 men of his regiment, 23 rangers, 
viz. Captain Hugh McKay with 11 Georgians, Captain 
William Palmer (son of Colonel William Palmer) with 
10 Carolinians in the General's pay, and Thomas Jones 



H 



FNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 215 

with 35 Creek and Euchee Indians, making on the whole 
about 130 men. Captain Palmer was directed to make 
excursions from Moosa, and Jones was to keep the Indians 
always scouting. The command of the whole party was 
given verbally to Colonel William Palmer, though Colonel 
Palmer was but a volunteer aid to the General without 
commission. His instructions were to alarm the Spaniards 
as often as he could and to camp every night in the woods. 
Colonel Palmer hesitated to take the command under these 
conditions; he told General Oglethorpe the party was too 
small, that he should have at least two hundred white men 
for this post, separated as it was from the rest of the army 
and within reach of the forces of the castle. Oglethorpe 
appears to have been irritated at this, and replied shortly 
that if Colonel Palmer was unwilling to go he would send 
one of his own officers, upon which Colonel Palmer under- 
took the command. The General assured him that he 
would soon reenforce him. The unfortunate party set 
off for Fort Moosa on the 9th of July, having no more 
provisions with them than they could carry. Before they 
departed Colonel Palmer repeated to General Oglethorpe 
that the force was too small and again warned him, "Sir, 
you are going to sacrifice these men." Upon which the 
General again assured him he would send assistance as soon 
as he had taken possession of the Island of Anastatia. 

Soon after they were gone, Oglethorpe marched down 
from Fort Diego to the sea-beach, and there meeting Cap- 
tain Bull 1 with another company just arrived on the way 
to join the Carolina regiment, he at first ordered him to 
turn aside and proceed to reenforce Colonel Palmer; but 
he countermanded the order and allowed Captain Bull to 
proceed to his own regiment at Point Quartell. The 

^ William Biiil, .Jr., son of the then Lieutenant Governor, at the time 
Speaker of the Commons and afterward himself Lieutenant Governor. 



216 HISTORY or SOUTH CAROLINA 

General then embarked on board the men-of-war with his 
regiment, consisting of 257 officers and men and 100 
Indians. 

Tliere was great confusion in the commissariat, if indeed 
such a department existed in the expedition. We have 
found no mention of an officer in charge of it in general. 
Tliomas Wright was commissary to the Carolina regiment. 
This appears to have been one of the causes of the hasty 
rides of the commanding general from one end of the 
peninsula to the other. The Carolina regiment had no 
supplies of food or ammunition. Lieutenant Colonel Le 
Jau had to be sent back to the St. John's to look after the 
Carolina transports; while Lieutenant Colonel Cook was 
engaged in the transportation of a howitzer drawn by fifty 
men along the beach ; the boats meanwhile were lying idle 
at the St. John's. While Colonel Le Jau was attending 
to the transportation of these things at the Palmetto Hut, 
he saw Diego Spinola on horseback there, under no guard, 
the army's provisions lying protected only by a sergeant 
and five men. Prisoners and guards were on a like foot- 
ing. 

Colonel Palmer's doomed party arrived at Fort Moosa, 
and against his orders and entreaties all but the rangers 
entered immediately into the enclosure and encamped 
there. Colonel Palmer in vain warned them that the place 
would prove a grave to them. He urged them to encamp 
anywhere on open ground, where they could fight with 
advantage, and not coop themselves up in a dismantled 
work; but neither Mcintosh nor McKay paid any regard 
to his orders or entreaties. Each built a palmetto house 
for himself within the fort. 

Colonel Vander Dussen and Lieutenant Colonel Cook 
both disapproved of Oglethorpe's new plan of transferring 
his regiment to Anastatia Island, and Colonel Vander 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 217 

Dii.ssen wrote both to the commodore and to the General 
urging that Point Quartell commanded the harbor, se- 
cured communication witli the fleet, and afforded a safe 
position behind the sand hills, from which the castle could 
be reached by their guns. The movement was notwith- 
standing carried out. On the 12th of June Oglethorpe 
landed with what men he had and two hundred sailors, 
under the command of Captain Warren, and the English 
flag was hoisted at the lookout upon the island. In 
the meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Cook, who had charge 
of the artillery, had got a howitzer and some guns to Point 
Quartell. The bed of the mortar or howitzer had not, 
however, been landed by the vessel in which it was 
loaded, and some of the gun carriages were deficient. The 
mortar and the six-pounders had therefore for want of car- 
riages to be placed in the sand, and buried themselves 
whenever fired. The Spanish galleys came out again and 
opened fire on the forces on Anastatia Island, upon which 
Lieutenant Colonel Cook threw a bomb from the mortar 
on Point Quartell, which burst directly over the castle. 
This brought on a fire from both sides, which was main- 
tained with great difficulty by Colonel Cook, because of 
the burying of his guns by recoil at each fire. Ineffectual 
fires were thus kept up for several days. 

And now occurred the catastrophe against which Colonel 
Pahner had vainly Avarned and protested, and in which he 
lost his own life. He had refused to enter the fort and 
had kept the rangers out of it; he pointed out to Captains 
Mcintosh and McKay that they were in open view of the 
castle, from which, indeed, their numbers could be counted. 
He urged that they should camp outside of the fort at 
night, constantly shifting their position, so that the eneni}^ 
would not know where to attack them. Tliis was tlie sub- 
ject of daily discussion. He wished himself away, as he 



218 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

had no commission, and his advice was disregarded. He 
valued his lite, he said, no more than they did theirs: but 
he did not wish to have their throats cut like dogs. No 
reenforcements having been sent him. Colonel Palmer 
declared the garrison had been sent to Fort Moosa as a 
sacrifice. 

Some of the rangers returning to the fort about one 
o'clock on the morning of the loth reported that they had 
heard the Spanish Indians dancing the war dance. Palmer 
knew at once what this meant, and ordered the rangers to 
lie down and take a nap, while he watched and would 
wake them when necessary. This he did between three 
and four in the morning; and seeing all the rangers stand- 
ing to their arms, he went into the fort and awoke the men 
there, telling them of their danger and advising them to 
take to their arms. They laughed at his fears and lay down 
again. While Colonel Palmer, in great indignation, was 
standing in the gateway talking with Jones, the advanced 
sentinel called out that there was a party of men coming. It 
is needless to go into the details. The small garrison was 
surprised and outnumbered, but fought desperately; many, 
aroused from their sleep, were undressed. The assailants, 
attacking from every quarter, entered sword in hand, and 
a massacre of the garrison followed. The Indian, Jones, 
jumping from the fort, joined Colonel Palmer and his two 
sons, with some of the rangers, who, remaining outside 
the fort, availed themselves of the ditch, from which they 
fired upon the Spaniards. This position they maintained 
until Colonel Palmer was shot from the fort, and crying, 
" Hurrah, my lads, the day is ours ; I have been in many 
battles and never lost one yet," died. About fifty 
whites and Indians were killed and upward of twenty 
taken. Yet, strange to say, not a Carolinian was lost but 
Colonel Palmer himself. The attacking party was vari- 



ij 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 219 

ously estimated from 300 to 450 men, and were said to 
have lost as many as the English. The Spanish com- 
mander of the galleys himself was killed. 

General Oglethorpe landed with his men and the sailors 
on the 12th, but no progress was made in the erection of 
batteries. Evervthinp- was in confusion. Resolutions 
were taken, plans determined upon, but nothing carried 
out. Captain Warren became impatient, complaining 
that the General had come there without provisions, am- 
munition, or anything but what he had got from the ships, 
and threatened to return with his men to the fleet. 
Colonel Vander Diissen, who had come over from Point 
Quartell to the island to consult the General, attempted 
to smooth matters and proposed to the naval officers an 
attack upon the enemy's galleys, in which he himself 
volunteered to join ; but notliing came of his offer. To 
his surprise General Oglethorpe now handed him a written 
order that, leaving a sufficient guard for the defence of the 
battery, mortars, and cannon on Point Quartell, he should 
come with the rest of the regiment to the island. Upon 
his return to Point Quartell Colonel Vander Dussen sum- 
moned all his officers, and, laying before them the General's 
orders, desired their opinions, whereupon the Lieutenant 
Colonel, Major, and all the captains and lieutenants 
joined in a respectful protest against the movement, as 
condemning the small force to be left to a fate similar to 
that of the garrison at Fort Moosa, and requesting that if 
the General should withdraw any part of the force on Point 
Quartell, he would keep the Carolina regiment together. 
With this paper Colonel Vander Dussen went over again 
to the island.' "Then they refused to obey my orders," 
said the General, upon perusing the communication. 
"No, sir," said the Colonel, "that is only their opinion. 
But if your Excellency still orders me to do it, I will bring 



220 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

them over." The matter was not further pressed at the 
time, and Colonel Vander Dussen, finding everything at 
a standstill, went out to the fleet, and persuaded Captain 
Pearce, the Commodore, to accompany him to the island 
for a conference. At this conference a plan of action pro- 
posed by the Colonel was agreed upon ; to wit, that a 
battery should be raised with all possible expedition to 
destroy the galleys, or at least drive them under cover of 
the castle. That if any of the galleys attempted to escape 
they should be attacked by the men-of-war's boats. That 
Lieutenant Colonel Cook should be charged with placing 
the mortars in position to do the greatest damage. That 
one-half of the forces, and all the Indians, should be sent 
over to Fort Moosa to hold the enemy on that side and 
keep open the communication with Fort Diego. That all 
the Indians should be carried there, because they were 
threatening to leave the General, having the insolence to 
tell him to his face that he was afraid of the Spaniards, 
and therefore kept upon the island. That a daj' should 
be agreed upon for the forces on the island to move down 
to the south end of the town, and those upon the main at 
the north end to attack the town sword in hand. It was 
decided that the General should go over to the main with 
his troops and the Indians, and that Colonel Vander 
Dussen should come over to the island to take command 
there. Orders were accordingly issued for the movement 
of the Carolina regiment from Point Quartell to Anastatia. 
While these movements were being made, deserters came 
in on the 20th of June, and among other things told that 
one of the Indians taken at Fort Moosa was to be burnt 
by the Spaniards, whereupon General Oglethorpe sent a 
flag of truce demanding the surrender of the castle, and 
at the same time informing the Governor that if any of the 
prisoners held by the Spaniards were ill used he would 



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UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 221 

take satisfaction of the Spanish prisoners he had. A reply 
to this was returned, that an answer would be sent. It 
did not, however, come until the next morning, when the 
Governor of St. Augustine swore by the Holy Cross that 
lie would defend the castle to the last drop of his blood, 
and hoped soon to kiss his Excellency's hands there. 
With regard to the prisoners, he treated all with human- 
ity, as he desired his people might be treated. It was 
believed that the people in the town and castle were for 
surrendering on condition that they should be permitted 
to go to Havana, but the Governor and the Bishop, who 
had come to the knowledge of the limited time the men- 
of-war would stay, would not agree to surrender. The 
firing was thereupon renewed on both sides. 

On the 21st Colonel Vander Dussen relieved all the 
guards of the General's regiment, but it was not until 
the 23d that Lieutenant Colonel Le Jau came over to 
Anastatia with the remainder of the Carolina regiment. 
The next day some of the Indians, who had swum across 
the river and killed a Spanish Indian near the town, danc- 
ing and singing the death hop, according to their custom, 
came to the General's tent to present him with the head. 
General Oglethorpe refused it with indignation, called 
them barbarous dogs, and bade them begone. They did so, 
going away disgusted, and saying that if they had carried 
the head of an Englishman to the French they would not 
have been treated in that manner. It was with difficulty 
then that the Indians could be persuaded to go over to the 
main with the Geneial. It was not until the evening of 
the 24th that, having sent over all of his regiment, he 
crossed himself to the main, leaving the Carolina regi- 
ment upon Anastatia. Colonel Vander Dussen now 
again proposed to the naval officers an attack ujjon the 
galleys, but difficulties were raised. Then he proposed to 



222 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

undertake it himself, if they would lend him their boats 
and some of their men. This was declined. It was later, 
however, agreed that the attack should be made by Captain 
Tyrrel, commander of the Carolina, who had offered his 
service; but the Commodore, hearing of the scheme, for- 
bade it, expressing his surprise that such a thing should 
have been contemplated without his knowledge. Then 
the Commodore undertook the matter himself, and sent 
his Lieutenant ashore to command the attack. Again he 
changed his mind — the affair was too hazardous. He 
would, however, leave it to the gentlemen of the sea and 
land service on shore. A conference was had, and it was 
again determined that the galleys should be attacked, pro- 
vided there was water enough in the swash opposite to 
the castle. But, strange to say, at the very time of the 
conference on shore, on the 26th of June, the Commodore 
was holding a council of war aboard his vessel, the result 
of which was a letter sent ashore, declaring that the 
attack was impracticable, without assigning any reasons. 
Colonel Vander Dassen, still persisting, himself had the 
swash sounded, and finding water enough for the boats, 
went on board and informed the Commodore. But it was 
all to no purpose, the Commodore telling him flatly he 
could afford no assistance. Against this Vander Dassen 
protested, pointing out to Captain Pearce the dangerous 
condition in which he would be left, if now deserted by 
the navy. Another council was called; but a strong east- 
erly wind arising, the ships slip[)ed their cables and put to 
sea. The wind subsiding, the ships returned, and further 
discussion took place, but the Commodore was in haste to 
get away before the hurricane season set in, which he per- 
sisted in expecting in Jnl}^ though assured that August 
the 2d was the earliest an autunuial storm had ever been 
known. Colonel Vander Dussen then appealed to him for 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 223 

two hundred men to be left on shore, with an officer of 
their own, to support the Carolina regiment upon the 
island until the return of the fleet after the hurricane 
season had passed. This a council of war declared im- 
possible, and all the seamen were taken off the island on 
the 5th of July, leaving the artillery lying there. There- 
upon all the ships except the two belonging to Carolina 
set sail upon a bright and beautiful day and left the 
Carolinians to shift for themselves. 

Upon the departure of the fleet General Oglethorpe 
determined to raise the siege, which was done against the 
wishes of Colonel Vander Dussen, who still thought they 
could maintain it until further succor could be received. 
On the 4th of July General Oglethorpe issued a peremptory 
Older to Colonel Vander Dussen "to raise the blockade 
fiom the Island of Anastatia and come off with the train 
and troops with the least loss you can prevent. But to 
spoil rather than leave the artillery." The Carolina regi- 
ment was the last to be withdrawn, which was not done 
until all the artillery had been removed. 

A curious incident occurred during the raising of the 
siege illustrating the extraordinary influence which the 
mulatto Diego had acquired over General Oglethorpe. 
The General having made an advance to cover the moving 
of his stores, asked Colonel Barnwell what he thought of 
letting Diego Spinola, who was with them, go into St. 
Augustine, saying that he had promised to return in three 
days. To this Colonel Barnwell replied that he had often 
heard his father say, ""Never trust a Spaniard, nor be 
afraid of an Indian." "Then," said the General, "you 
do not approve it." But adding that a single prisoner was 
of no consequence, and that the enemy knew the situation 
from deserters, he let Diego go in, to the dissatisfaction 
of all about him. Diego had no sooner reached the castle 



224 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

than fire was opened from it, directed to the very sf)ot on 
wliich tlie General had been standing. 

Upon his retreat General Oglethorpe united his com- 
mand at the camp on the St. John's opposite to Fort 
George, the point from which he had set out on his expe- 
dition, — and remained there several days. On the 21st 
of July he crossed his regiment to the fort, and on the 22d 
they marched to Fredrica. The Carolina regiment re- 
mained on the Spanish side of the St. John's until the 
evening of the 24th. It returned to Carolina, having lost 
none killed by the enemy, but twelve by disease, and tivo 
by desertion, one a New England man who effected his 
escape ; the other, an Irishman, was retaken and shot. 

The failure of the expedition has been repeatedly charged 
by historians to the conduct of the South Carolina regi- 
ment, to wit: (1) to their tardiness in arriving; (2) to 
their turbulence, inefficiency, and desertion; and (3) to 
their early abandonment of the enterprise. The foregoing 
account of the expedition presents a complete vindication 
from these charges.^ 

(1) Upon the first charge it is to be observed that the 
time for the enterprise was most unpropitious. The Caro- 
lina colony was in a state of exhaustion from pestilence, 
and of domestic apprehension on account of the disturbed 
condition of the negro population, and was thus in no 
condition to furnish men for a military expedition else- 
where. To do so, therefore, it was necessary to recruit 
the regiment that the Assembly agreed to furnish, from 
other colonies, and this necessarily involved delay. Of 
these conditions General Oglethorpe was fully aware, and 

1 We are not to be surprised that these charges are seized upon by the 
eulogists of Oglethorpe when they are made by Hewatt {Hist, of So. Ca.^ 
vol. II, 81) and repeated without examination or question by Ramsay 
{/list, of So. Ca., vol. I, 143). 



i 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 225 

accepted the assistance proposed with that understanding. 
As it turned out, however, the Carolina contingent was 
as promptly at the rendezvous as the General's own men, 
and took part in the first affair, to wit, the capture of 
Fort Diego. The Assembly had agreed to furnish four 
hundred men. It furnished six hundred, besides the com- 
pany of volunteers. 

(2) The second charge is equally without foundation. 
The conduct of the regiment was excellent throughout the 
campaign. It is true that some of the company of volun- 
teers, disgusted with the useless marching and counter- 
marching, feints and drum-beating, instead of a vigorous 
and prompt attack, to assist in which they had volun- 
teered, and under the pressure of the uneasiness of the 
people at home, had abandoned the expedition. But these 
were but the volunteers, who had not undertaken to remain 
during a long-drawn-out affair, and were not of the regular 
regiment promised by the province. From the Carolina 
regiment there were but two desertions, one by a man 
from New England, who succeeded in getting away, and 
the other by an Irishman, who was taken and executed. 
The absurd charge that Captain Bull deserted is refuted 
by the fact that on returning home he was made the bearer 
of dispatches from General Oglethorpe to the Lieutenant 
Governor of South Carolina, and was immediately reelected 
Speaker of the Commons, an office he had given up to go 
upon the expedition. 

(3) So far from there being the least foundation for the 
third charge, the correspondence between General Ogle- 
thorpe and Colonel Vander Dussen shows that the latter 
protested against the abandonment of the siege, and only 
evacuated Anastatia Island under peremptory orders from 
General Oglethorpe, given in response to his urgent letter 
proposing to remain. The record shows that the Carolina 

VOL. II — Q 



226 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

regiment was the last to abandon the siege and brought 
off considerable material left by General Oglethorpe's 
troops in their camp. 

"It has been asserted," says Bishop Stevens in his 
History of G-eorgia,^ "that the raising of the siege was 
owing to the defection of Colonel Vander Dussen and the 
Carolina regiment. On the contrary, he remained with 
Oglethorpe till the last, and General Oglethorpe acknowl- 
edged his anxiety to fight for his country by saying that 
Colonel Vander Dussen had made several handsome offers 
of service which necessity had compelled him to decline." 

However gallant and excellent an officer General Ogle- 
thorpe had proved himself to be in service of war under 
the great prince, the conduct and result of this small affair 
in the wilds of America show him to have been lacking in 
all the qualities necessary for an independent commander. 
He lacked decision and constancy of purpose. He had 
held out to the Assembly of South Carolina, as a great 
inducement for the expedition at that particular time, the 
command he had secured of the St. John's River by the 
capture of the fort at Picolata. And yet with a large 
naval force absolutel}" securing the possession of the river 
from its mouth on the ocean, he fails to avail himself of 
this point as a basis of the movement, upon the ground 
that his soldiers would be discouraged by losing sight of 
the fleet, and because of that apprehension, adopts the 
long, arduous, and fatiguing course — equally out of sight 
of the nav}^ — of marching down the peninsula. In the 
prosecution of this plan he shows no strength and directness 
of purpose, nor constancy in carrying it out. With no 
properly organized staff, he himself undertakes to perform 
alike the duties of a scout and those of a commissary. He 
races down to St. Augustine to take a look at the place 

1 Vol. 1, 178. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 22T 

one day, and the next he races back to the St. John's to 
see if his supplies have arrived. Then he rushes back 
again to take another look at St. Augustine, and has 
drums beat to announce the laying of the siege. No 
definite plans are arranged with the naval officers, and 
their unwarranted apprehensions of the approaching season 
rendered their assistance nugatory. The army and the navy 
having arrived before St. Augustine, it is left to Colonel 
Vander Dussen to attempt to arrange a concert of action. 
But an easterly wdnd frightens off the fleet, and the object 
of the expedition is precipitately abandoned. The most 
satisfactory reason and excuse for Oglethorpe's conduct 
during the siege is that given by his biographer and 
eulogist, viz. that, laboring under a fever, worn out by 
fatigue, he was rendered unfit for action. But was not 
this sickness the result of his own over-exertion in matters 
which, had he properly organized his expedition, would 
have been better attended to by his staff, and need not 
have demanded his immediate personal attention and 
exertion ? 

Whatever may have been General Olgethorpe's merits, 
he certainly had not the fortune of securing the confidence 
or approval of those who served under him, and it was not 
onl}' in Carolina that his military conduct was called into 
question. There was a violent disagreement between him- 
self and Lieutenant Colonel Cochran, who had come out 
with him as his next in command, which was only settled 
by the transference of Colonel Cochran to another regiment. 
This source of trouble removed, differences at once arose 
between himself and Lieutenant Colonel Cook, Colonel 
Cochran's successor. Lieutenant Colonel Cook was as 
restive under his management of the Florida expedition 
as was Colonel Vander Dussen. Eliza Lucas writes: 
"Poor Col. Cook is broke on ace- of his complaint 



228 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

against Mr. Oglethorpe. The hxst mentioned carr}''** many 
of his own creatures home with him w- did the business; 
and thus we find a man of Col. Cooks fair character 
ruined by the wretch who had a superior Influence at 
court." ^ Colonel Cook went so far as to prefer charges 
against the General, but he was not so fortunate as 
Colonel Cochran. General Oglethorpe was acquitted 
and he was dismissed from the service. In discussing 
Oglethorpe's military conduct in regard to the Florida ex- 
pedition, it is not irrelevant to observe that subsequently 
at home in the rebellion, of 1745, while holding high com- 
mand in the King's troops he was charged with similar 
faults to those committed in Florida. Leading the cavalry 
in pursuit of the rebels, under orders to press them with 
the utmost diligence, he turns aside at the critical moment 
to shelter and supply his command, and halts for the night 
in such a position that the main army under the Duke of 
Cumberland passes him without his knowledge, or the 
knowledge of his Royal Highness, who thus finds his 
vanguard unaccountably become the rear. Court-mar- 
tialled for having "lingered on the road," he was, it was 
true, acquitted, and was subsequently promoted, and ul- 
timately, twenty years afterward, became a full General 
in his Majesty's forces, but he was never again emploj^ed 
in the field, and was deeply mortified at the want of some 
mark of distinction, having failed to obtain knighthood, 
which he coveted. ^ 

On the return of the Carolina regiment to Charlestown 
on the 13th of August, Colonel John Fenwicke, on behalf 

^ Women of Colonial and Bevolntionary Times, Eliza Pinckney (Mrs. 
Ravenel), 63. 

2 Stevens's Hist, of Ga., vol. I, 201, 206 ; Harris's Memorials of Ogle- 
thorpe, 273, 280-284. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 229 

of the Commons, addressed Colonel Vander Dussen in 
this somewhat extravagant language:^ — 

" When you were ordered to carry off your train and troops from 
the Island of Anastatia, and to spoil rather than leave the artillery ; 
and when Commodore Pearce had sailed and left you alone on the 
island with the forces of this province, you brought off all the artillery, 
which General Oglethorpe said was impossible to be done, and pre- 
served everything, and completed your retreat without any loss. The 
Romans for one life saved gave the corona civica; to you, who have 
saved a regiment, this House tenders all it can bestow, — a public 
acknowledgment of your merit. You have acquired more glory by 
the retreat you have made from the situation in which you were 
placed than you could have gained even by a conquest." 

Throughout the brief campaign Colonel Vander Dussen 
had certainly displayed high military qualities. In the 
very trying position of his doubtful relation to General 
Oglethorpe he had behaved with great tact and discretion, 
and had avoided any collision of authority under circum- 
stances which would have embroiled one of less self- 
control. He had shown military sagacity and had acted 
with conspicuous courage. And had his plans been car- 
ried out, it is highly probable that the expedition would 
have been successful. But it was altogether beyond the 
truth to say that glory had been acquired by any one in 
the futile campaign. It is enough to say that Colonel 
Vander Dussen and his regiment had faithfully done their 
duty, and the failure of the expedition was not attributa- 
ble to them. 

^ RusseWs Magazine, September, 1859. Colonel Fenwicke held at 
this time the position of Major General of the militia of the province. 
So. Ca. Gazette, June 26, 1740. 



CHAPTER XIII 

1740-43 

The slave code adopted in 1722 under the Provisional 
government of Sir Francis Nicholson had again been re- 
vised in 1735.1 The insurrection of 1739 led to another 
thorough revision in 1740.^ While the expedition against 
St. Augustine was in progress the General Assembly 
devoted itself to this subject, and to the honor of the 
province be it said, that so far from this rising of the 
negroes adding to the severities of the law, it was made 
the occasion of ameliorating the condition of the slave. 
More stringent provisions were made against insurrec- 
tions, but in the main the amendments to the code were 
in the negro's favor. 

A penalty of X5 currency was imposed upon any person 
who employed a slave in any work or labor (works for 
necessary occasions of the family only excepted) on the 
Lord's day, commonly called Sunday. The selling of 
strong liquor to slaves was prohibited. Slaves were to 
be provided with sufficient clothing, covering, and food, 
and in case any owner or person in charge of slaves 
neglected to make such provision the neighboring justice, 
upon complaint, was required to inquire into the matter, 
and if the owner or person in charge failed to exculpate 
himself the justice might make such orders for the relief 
of the slave as in his discretion he should think fit. 

And because, it was said, by reason of the extent and 



1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 355. 2 jj)i(i^ 397. 

230 



II 



^1 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 231 

distance of plantations in the province the inhabitants 
were far removed from each other, and many cruelties 
might be committed upon slaves, it was provided that if 
any slave should suffer in life or limb, or be beaten or 
abused contrary to the direction of the act, when no white 
person was present, or, being present, refused to give 
evidence, the owner or person in charge of such slave 
should be deemed to be guilty of the offence, unless he 
made the contrary appear by good and sufficient evidence, 
or by his own oath cleared and exculpated himself. This 
oath was to prevail if clear proof of the offence was not 
made by at least two witnesses. In case of alleged 
cruelty to a slave in the absence of white witnesses, the 
burden of proof was with the person making the charge, 
while the oath of the party charged might exculpate him 
unless against the oath of two white witnesses. It was 
something at least that the owner was called upon to show 
his innocence. Owners were prohibited from working 
slaves more than fifteen hours in the twenty-four from 
the 25th of March to the 25th of September, or more than 
fourteen hours in the twenty-four from the 25th of Sep- 
tember to the 25th of March. 

The slave code as revised in 1740 remained substantially 
the law in regard to slavery during the continuance of the 
institution in South Carolina for 120 years after, and 
its provisions in regard to the killing of slaves were 
repeatedly enforced. It was, however, so amended in 
1821 that if any one should murder a slave he should 
suffer death without the benefit of clergy, and if any one 
should kill a slave in sudden heat and passion he should 
be fined not exceeding $500 and be imprisoned not ex- 
ceeding six months. It happened that immediately before 
the passage of this act — very probably the cause of its 
passage — a negro who had run away was killed by his 



232 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

master, and in his defence the plea was made that he 
could not be tried under the new act, and that the new act 
repealed the old. The courts of South Carolina, however, 
would listen to no such sophistry, but held that while the 
new act could not apply to his case, as it was ex post 
facto, the master could not thus escape, and punished 
him under the act of 1740.1 

Having thoroughly revised the slave code, the Assembly 
made another attempt to check the further importation of 
negroes. 2 An act was passed reciting that the importation 
of negroes from the coast of Africa, as they were generally 
of a barbarous and savage disposition, was dangerous to 
the peace and safety of the province, and that to prevent 
these fatal mischiefs, for the future it was necessary that 
a method should be established by which a proportional 
number of white inhabitants should be introduced. A 
tax was imposed on the purchase of negroes, graduated 
according to their height; a tax of <£10 was laid to be paid 
by every person who in fifteen months after its passage 
first purchased any negro 4 feet 2 inches high that had 
not been six months in the province; and =£5 for every 
such negro under that height and above 3 feet 2 inches, 

1 State V. Taylnr, 2 McCord, 488. State v. Itaines, 8 McCord, 452. 
As late as 1853, two white men were convicted and executed, under the 
provisions of the acts of 1740 and of 1821, for killing a negro whose iden- 
tity was not established, but who, under the act of 1740, was presumed 
by the courts to have been a slave. In this case the judge, who both tried 
the case on the circuit and pronounced the opinion of the highest court 
upon appeal, stated that no eye-witness had testified to the killing, and 
the mutilated remains when discovered offered no means of recognition. 
The accused men were, nevertheless, convicted and executed ; the Gov- 
ernor at the time ordering out a strong military force to escort the sheriff 
with the condemned men from Charleston, where they had been im- 
prisoned for safe keeping, to VValterboro, the place of execution. See 
Slavery in the Province of So. Ca. 1070-1770 (Edward McCrady) ; Am. 
Hist. Asso., 1896, 631, 673. 2 statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 556. 



il 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 233 

and all under that height <£2 10s. ; and after fifteen 
months, for the term of three years next ensuing, £100 
for every negro over 4 feet 3 inches, and X50 for every 
one under that height and above 3 feet 2 inches; and for 
all under, X25. The sums thus raised from this tax were 
appropriated for defraying the charge of transportation of 
poor Protestants from Charlestown to the places of settle- 
ment. And as an inducement to the immigration of 
these people, necessary implements and tools for plant- 
ing, and provisions for one year, were to be provided for 
each man not over fifty years, and a cow and calf in 
addition to such provisions were allowed for every five 
such persons who should actually settle in any of the 
townships laid out, or in any other of the frontier places 
in the province in which they might be directed by the 
Governor to settle. Besides the tax upon the first pur- 
chaser, the slaves imported were themselves taxed X50 
additional. The measure was intended to act as a prohi- 
bition, and it did so. 

The insurrection of 1739 had, however, aroused the 
apprehension of danger from that source, Avhich the com- 
mon belief that the Spaniards through commissaries were 
still instigating the negroes to revolt greatly increased. 
In this condition of the public mind a dwelling-house of 
a Mr. Snowden was set on fire by a negro man. Upon the 
evidence of an accomplice and upon his OAvn confession he 
was publicly burned to death on the 14th of August, 1741. 
This awful punishment, it must be observed however, was 
not inflicted under any provision of the slave code or of 
any law peculiar to South Carolina, but under the ancient 
law of England, imposed as a lex taliones by the Statute of 
Edward I. Chief Justice Trott, in a charge to the grand 
jur}'- in 1708, in explaining the different offences and 
punishments,. told them "burners of houses by the civil 



234 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

law were to be burned, and so they were anciently by the 
common law of England, as appears by Bracton." In 
1703 a white woman was convicted of poisoning her hus- 
band with the aid of two men as her accomplices, and 
Chief Justice Trott sentenced the men to be hanged and 
the woman to be burned. ^ 

The year 1740 was rendered memorable also for the 
controversy which arose upon the preaching of the Rev. 
George Whitefield. Mr. Whitefield, who had come to 
America to aid Oglethorpe in the settlement of Georgia, 
had previously been in Charlestown. In August, 1738, 
while there, about to embark for Europe, he had visited the 
Rev. Alexander Garden, then Commissary of the Bishop 
of London, who, he writes, received him very courteously 
and offered him a lodging. "How does God raise up 
friends," he exclaims, "wherever I go ! " At the Com- 
missary's entreaty he preached the next Sunday morning 
and evening in St. Philip's, which he describes as a grand 
church, resembling one of the new churches in London, 
and was most cordially thanked by the Commissary. He 
returned in 1740, after having had a most wonderful career 
in England, where his auditories had often consisted of 
twenty thousand persons, but where also he had given 
occasion to the Bishop of London for publishing a charge 

1 Mss. charges of Chief Justice Trott, Charleston Library. Hist, of 
So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 45L It is at least a curious coin- 
cidence, if indeed it was not really the suggestion of the burning in 
Charlestown, that in The So. Ca. Ciazette of July 30, 1741, there is a letter 
giving an account of incendiary fires iu New Jersey and an insurrection 
of negroes in New York attributed, like that in South Carolina, to Spanish 
instigation, in consequence of which two negro men were burned at the 
stake in New York at one time, and seven at another. See an account 
of the tires and supposed insurrection of the negroes in New York, and 
their trial and the burning of thirteen, as there stated, in Am. Common- 
wealth Series, New York (Roberts), vol. I, 288-295. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 235 

to his clergy calling upon them to avoid alike the extremes 
of enthusiasm and lukewarmness. He had come this time 
by way of Philadelphia, and travelling through Pennsyl- 
vania, the Jerseys, to New York, and back again to Mary- 
land, Virginia, North and South Carolina, he preached 
all along to immense congregations. With Mr. James 
Habersham's assistance he had founded an orphan asylum 
in Georgia, which he called Bethesda, the first collection 
made for which in America was in March, 1740, at the 
Rev. Mr. Josiah Smith's meeting-house in Charlestown,i 
to which he came about the middle of March to see his 
brother, the captain of a ship. He returned again in July 
to Charlestown, "the place," says Gillies, "of his greatest 
success and of the greatest opposition.'" ^ He had been cor- 
dially received by Commissary Garden, as we have seen, 
on his first visit, but the "enthusiasm" against which the 
Bishop of London had warned him led him here to dis- 
regard his canonical obligations. He was an ordained 
priest of the Church of England. Indeed, he had returned 
to England for the purpose of receiving ordination, and 
the vows to obey the canons, which he had so recently 
taken, enjoined "the use of the forms of prayer prescribed 
in the Book of Common Prayer," and it was Dr. Garden's 
special duty as the Commissary of the Bishop of London 
to see to the observance of the canons of the church, — a 
duty to which his attention was now particularly called 
by the Bishop's warning. But Mr. Whitefield, often 
called upon to preach to great crowds, many of whom 
neither possessed nor knew how to use the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, in public worship assumed the privilege of 

1 The Rev. Josiah Smith was grandson of the Landgrave Thomas 
Smith. The church mentioned in the text as his meeting-house was tlie 
Congregationalist or Independent Church. 

'•* GilHes's, Memuirs, 53. 



236 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

disregarding the Prayer Book, and performing extempore 
services. This was an offence against the church of which 
he professed to be a minister, and an offence which it was 
the clear duty of the Commissary to notice and prohibit. 
But the first matter of difference Avas upon the subject of 
the doctrine of justification and the new birth, upon which 
Mr. Whitefield delighted to preach, and also because of 
certain charges which Mr. Whitefield had made against 
the Bishop of London and his clergy. On the 17th of 
March (1740) the Commissary addressed a letter to Mr. 
Whitefield, calling in question his doctrine, and asking 
an explanation of his charges against the Bishop. It 
happened also that just at this time Mr. Whitefield had 
embraced the Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination, upon 
which Mr. John Wesley printed a sermon against it, and 
sent a copy of it to Commissary Garden. This caused a 
separation between the Wesleys and Whitefield,^ and the 
latter found his hands full with, on the one hand, a con- 
troversy with Commissary Garden about the use of the 
Prayer Book, and on the other with the Wesleys upon 
the disputed points of unconditional election, irresist- 
ible grace, and final perseverance. The one ended in 
his suspension from his priesthood in the Church of Eng- 
land, and the other in a separation of the founders of 
Methodism and the formation of two different societies.^ 
The South Carolina Gazette for the years 1741, 1742, 1743, 
was the vehicle of the bitter controversies carried on, 
generally under assumed names, on the one hand by Com- 
missary Garden and some of his friends, and on the other 
by Whitefield, the Rev. Josiah Smith, and the Rev. Isaac 
Chanler. Some of the papers produced in these contro- 
versies and republished in London and elsewhere, have 

1 Hist, of the Methodists (William Myles), Loudon, 1803, 15. 
a Ibid. 



UNDER THE UOYAL GOVERNMENT 237 

become historical. ^ An amusing incident is related by 
Dr. Dalcho. Commissary Garden, feeling himself called 
upon by a sense of duty to his congregation to counteract 
the opinions of Mr. Whitefield from the pulpit, preached 
and afterward published a sermon from the text Acts, 
xvii. 16: " These that have turned the world upside down 
are come hither also.'" This was replied to by Mr. White- 
field in a sermon from 2 Tim. iv. 14: ''''Alexander the 
coppersmith did me much evil ; the Lord reward him accord- 
ing to his works. ^^ "^ 

Mr. Whitefield was cited by the Commissary to appear 
before an ecclesiastical court held in St. Philip's Church 
on the 15th of July, 1740, to answer for his violations of 
the canons and rubrics. He appeared with Mr. Andrew 
Rutledge as his counsel, and protested against the authority 
of the court. The plea was overruled, and Whitefield 
appealed to the Lords Commissioners in England ap- 
pointed by the King for hearing appeals in spiritual 
causes from his Majesty's plantations in America. The 
appeal was allowed, but Mr. Whitefield failed to prosecute 
it, and after the time limited, he having procured no 
prohibition from England against the court's proceeding 
in Carolina, it went on with the case, and Whitefield fail- 
ing to answer, after successive adjournments to allow him 
the opportunity, judgment of suspension was pronounced 
against him. Unfortunate, indeed, Avas it for the Church 
of England that it could find no means of availing itself 

1 Whitefield's reply to Wesley's sermon on Predestination, " Six Let- 
ters to Rev. Mr. George Whitefield by Alexander Garden, M. A., Rector 
of St. Philip's Church, Charlestown, together with Mr. Whitefield's 
answer to the First Letter, 2d Ed., Boston, F. Fleet, 1740." Rev. Josiah 
Smith's famous sermon on "The Character of Preaching," "New Con- 
verts exhorted to cleave to the Lord," etc., by Isaac Chanler, minister of 
the Gospel on Ashley River, etc., Boston, 1740. 

•^Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 140. 



238 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the great work of the Wesleys and of Whitefield; un- 
happy, indeed, that it allowed a great and needed revival 
to end in schism instead of reformation. 

Hugh Bryan, a boy of sixteen years, was taken captive 
in the Yamassee war of 1715, and disposed of as a slave 
to a half-breed by the chief. His master was killed in 
an engagement with the whites, but he was protected by 
an Indian chief for kindness which his father had shown 
the savages in former years. It so happened that he had 
obtained a Bible during his captivity, and his Indian 
mistress gave him a copy of Beveridge's Private Thoughts, 
taken from some white family they had killed. He was 
taken to St. Augustine, from which place he escaped and 
regained his father's house. These circumstances had 
deeply impressed a mind which, perhaps never very strong, 
had been probably weakened by the shock of his capture 
and captivity. He is described as impulsive, ready for 
every good work, and sometimes carried far beyond the 
bounds of prudence, his piety predominating over his 
wisdom. On the other hand, he is said to have been a 
gentleman of character in civil life, having been honored 
with commissions both in the magistracy and militia of 
the province. ^ Whitefield obtained a complete ascendency 
over this gentleman and his wife, and, on his part, very 
naturally immensely overrated them. Soon after the great 
lire in Charlestown, of which we shall presently speak, 
there appeared in the Gazette of January 8, 1741, a com- 
munication over the signature of Hugh Bryan, in which, 
taking the text, "Is there evil in the city and the Lord 
hath not done it?" he recalled the recent disasters which 
befell the province, — the pestilence, the insurrection of 
the negroes, the failure of the St.- Augustine expedition, 
and the great fire, and attributed them all to the wicked- 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 242. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 239 

ness of the people and the sloth and indifference of the 
clergy, and then significantly added, "Shall our clergy at 
this day show a pious zeal about the decrees and canons of 
the Church even so as to persecute the faithful minister 
for not conforming exactly to their appendages of I'eligion 
(who themselves break canons every day) and have no 
bonds of love for perishing souls that are travelling in 
Egyptian darkness ? " This communication, which at- 
tracted a great deal of attention, not only for the charges 
against the clergy of the Church of neglect of their sacred 
duties, and daily violation of the canon law, but also for 
its fulsome adulation of Whiteiield, was found to have 
been supervised and corrected by Whitefield himself. He 
was about to sail for England, but before he did so he was 
arrested upon a warrant charging him with the libel, which 
he confessed as his own and glorified in, and gave bail to 
appear at the next session of the court.^ Nothing further 
is known of the proceedings. They appear to have been 
abandoned. 

The year 1740 closed with a disastrous fire in Charles- 
town. It broke out in the afternoon of the 18th of 
November and consumed all the houses from Broad and 
Church streets down to Granville Bastion, — that is, to 
the point where the East Battery now begins, — the oldest 
and most valuable part of the city, not so much on account 
of the buildings, which, being the first erected, were prob- 
ably inferior, but on account of the immense stores which 
they contained. The number of houses burned was com- 
puted at three hundred, besides storehouses and stables and 
several warehouses, and had it not been at the time of high 
water, the shipping would likewise have been destroyed. 
The loss was estimated at £200,000 sterling,^ considerably 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, January 15, 1741 ; Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 245. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, November 20, 1740. 



240 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

more probably than $1,000,000 of our present money. 
Parliament came to the assistance of the community, and 
voted X 20, 000 sterling, which was distributed by a joint 
Committee of Assembly, consisting of Messrs. Benjamin 
Whitaker, Joseph Wragg, John Abercombe, John Ham- 
merton, Andrew Rutledge, Joseph Blake, David Hext, 
and William Middleton.^ The minutes of the vestry of 
St. Philip's church show the vestry and wardens' meeting 
day after day until the February following, receiving con- 
tributions and distributing them among the poor. As 
late as April, 1741, William Osborne appears before them 
and applies for relief for the loss of his pilot boat in the 
time of the fire, and the gentlemen of the vestry gave him 
XlOO toward buying another. It will be recollected that 
in 1706 the building of wooden frame houses had been de- 
clared a common nuisance and prohibited,^ but as bricks 
were scarce, this act had been rejDealed in 1717; a similar 
measure was now again adopted; an act for regulating the 
rebuilding of the town was passed on the 10th of Decem- 
ber, 1740, which required all buildings to be made of 
brick, stone, or brick and stone, regulated the buildings 
in other particulars, and fixed the prices of building 
materials.^ 

Mr. Hugh Bryan was soon again in trouble, but this 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, November 7, 1741. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 573, 574. 

3 Among the prices for building material we find the following : Eng- 
lish Bricks per 1000, £6 ; New England Bricks per 1000, £2, 10s.; Caro- 
lina Bricks per 1000, £5. This implies that bricks were imported from 
both Eni;land and New England. And yet, in Governor Glen's Report to 
the Board of Trade in 1749, bricks are not mentioned as among the com- 
modities and manufactures usually imported into the Province, but, on 
the contrary, bricks are mentioned as among the exports of 1747-48. 
Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 229, -238 ; Documents connected ivith So. Ca. 
(Weston), 86, 88. But sea post, in regard to English Bricks. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 241 

time there was no room to doubt that his mind was seri- 
ously affected. At the suggestion of Whitetield he had 
entered earnestly into the religious instruction of the 
negroes, and in this work his mind became greatly excited 
and diseased. The matter was brought to the notice of 
the public by a presentment of the grand jury charging 
him with uttering enthusiastic prophecies of the destruc- 
tion of Chaa'lestown, and of assembling great bodies of 
negroes, under pretence of religious worship, contrary to 
law and detrimental to the public peace. Upon this a 
warrant was issued for his apprehension, but before it 
could be served he had recovered from his delusion, and 
addressed a letter to Mr. Bull, the Speaker of the Com- 
mons, confessing his errors and asking pardon. The letter, 
dated March 1, 1742, was published by order of the House, 
and is to be found in the Gazette of March, 1742. He 
writes : — 

" It is with shame interniix'd with joy that I write you this. I 
find that I have presumed in my zeal for God's glory beyond his will, 
and that he has suffered me to fall into a delusion of Satan — particu- 
larly in adhering to the impressions on my mind, though not to my 
knowledge in my reflections and other occurrences of my joui-nal. 
This delusion I did not discover till three days past when, after many 
days' converse with an invisible spirit, whose precepts seemed to be 
wise, and tending to the advancement of religion in general, and of 
my own spiritual welfare in particular, I found my teacher to be a 
liar and the father of lies, which brought me to a sense of my error 
and has much abased my soul with bitter reflections on the dishonor I 
have done to God as well as the disquiet which I may have occasioned 
my country. Satan till then appeared to me an angel of light in his 
spiritual conversation, but since I have discovered his wiles he has 
appeared a devil indeed, showing his rage." 

He denies that he furnished or was engaged in anything 
treasonable. The letter was republished in the Boston 
Post Boy^ with additional statements on the authority of 

VOL. II R 



242 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his brother as to the way by which he was undeceived. 
The invisible spirit had bidden him go by a direct course 
and without looking on the ground to a certain tree, and 
to take thence a rod, with which he must smite the waters 
of the river, and they should be divided, so that he should 
go over on dry ground. These directions he obe3'ed, and 
after several falls from not looking on the ground, found 
the tree and procured the rod with which he smote the 
water, and pressed forward toward the farther bank, until 
he was up to his chin in the water, and was just saved 
from drowning by his brother, who had followed and en- 
deavored to persuade him to go home. This he for 
some time refused to do, under the influence of the 
spirit; but his wet clothes and the sharp weather at 
length prevailed. The conduct of Hugh Bryan, says 
Dr. Howe, exhibits a singular mixture of religious zeal 
and either mental infirmity or temporarj'^ insanity. His 
letter and the story was widely republished from its 
resemblance to the extravagances of Davenport in Con- 
necticut about the same time, the progress of which 
the legislature of that province put forth its power to 
arrest.^ Mr. Bryan's case acted as a caution to the 
extravagances to which the human mind is prone, and 
produced a reaction from the extremes of religious en- 
thusiasm against which the Bishop of London had warned 
his clergy in the beginning of Whitefield's career. Yet 
it is related that Mr. Bryan seems not to have lost the 
confidence of men of judgment and piet3\ He saw his 
error and almost madness quickly, and his subsequent 
life showed him, it is said, to be a true servant of God: 

1 For an account of Mr. Davenport's imprndence and wildness and the 
legislation in Connecticut to restrain liini and his followers, see Truin- 
biiU's Hist, of Connecticut, vol. II, 160-189; Letters from New England 
in the So. Ca. Gazette, June 21, 1742. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 243 

probably this catastrophe was serviceable to him as well 
as to others.^ 

The subject of the religious instruction of the negroes 
had now, however, aroused considerable attention, and 
much more serious work was done in regard to it than 
Mr. Bryan's extravagances. To the honor of the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, writes He watt, it must 
be acknowledged that they had already made some attempt 
for the conversion of these heathen. They had no less 
than twelve missionaries in Carolina, who had instructions 
to give all the assistance in their power to this laudable 
purpose, and to each of them they allowed X50 in the year 
over and above their provincial salaries. But it was well 
known, he adds, that the fruit of their labors had been 
very small and inconsiderable. Such feeble exertions were 
no ways equal to the extent of the work required, nor to 
the greatness of the end proposed. Whether their small 
success ought to be ascribed to the rude and intractable 
disposition of the negroes, or to the neglect and indolence 
of the missionaries themselves, he does not undertake to 
determine. Perhaps, he ventures to assert, it was more 
or less owing to all these different causes. One thing, he 
observes, was very certain, that the negroes of the country, 
a few only excepted, were, when he wrote, as great 
strangers to Christianity, and as much under the influ- 
ence of pagan darkness, idolatry, and superstition as they 
were on their first arrival from Africa.^ 

The Rev. Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, it will be rec- 

1 So. Ca. Gazette of March 6, 1742 ; Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 244- 
246. Dr. Howe gives a list of the various publications of Hugh Bryan's 
letter and his story. See also Eliza Lucas's letter giving an account of 
H — B — and his illusions. Women of Colonial and Bevoliitionary 
Times, Eliza Pinckney (Mrs. Ravenel), 32, 33. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 99, 100. 



244 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ollected, had, in 1727, issued a pastoral upon the subject of 
the conversion and baptism of negro slaves, assuring the 
masters and mistresses that the rite of baptism did not 
in the least affect their property in their slaves, in order to 
allay their anxiety on this point, so that it would not 
deter them from efforts for their conversion to Chris- 
tianity; and at the same time had addressed a letter 
to the missionaries and schoolmasters with full and spe- 
cific instructions upon the subject, calling upon the school- 
masters to assist the clergy in this work on Sunday's. 
The Rev. James Parker, who came out from England in 
1740 and became the pastor of the Congregationalist, 
then known as the Brick Preshyterimi Church in Charles- 
town, and Mr. Josiah Smith, who soon after succeeded Mr. 
Parker, joined in appeal to the members of that church to 
enforce the bishops' recommendation in their own commu- 
nity. Waiving all question as to ecclesiastical authority in 
the matter, in a noble and Christian spirit, they published 
a letter in the Gazette of the 17th of April, 1742, in which, 
referring to the bishops' pastoral, they tlius addressed 
their people : — 

" We are not insensible of how little weight such names as ours may 
be deem'd with some of the gentlemen of the establishment. But his 
Lordship surely must give a certain force, emphasis, and i-eputation 
to every paragraph. And we think we act as men, as christians, as sub- 
jects, especially as ministers of Jesus Christ, if we take this opportunity 
of expressing our hearty concurrence with his Lordship, applauding 
his noble and pious designs and recommending his Letters to all 
families who sustain the same character and denomination with \is, 
hoping it may awaken them to a religious concern for the instruction 
of negroes under their respective charges which we humbly submit to 
the wisdom of our superiors whether and how attempts of this nature 
may be thought to claim the public protection, continuance, and 
satisfaction." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 245 

This appeal was excepted to and carped at by a writer 
in the next Gazette^ who objected to any recognition of 
the "-establishment" for even so pious a purpose; but Dr. 
Howe observes it seems not to have been without effect. ^ 

Neither the Church of England nor the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel entertained any scruples as to 
the institution of slavery. The Church act of 1704 antici- 
pated that the Society would give negro slaves as part of 
the endowment of the parishes, as it provided that the 
negroes when so given should constitute a part of 
the glebe. 2 The Society itself accepted a devise by 
General Codrington, in 1710, of two valuable plantations 
in Barbadoes, upon the condition that these establishments 
should be kept entire with at least three hundred negroes 
upon them, the produce of which was to be appropriated to 
maintain a number of professors and scliolars under vows 
of chastity and obedience, who were required to study and 
practise physic and surgery as well as divinity, that they 
might endear themselves to the people, and have the 
opportunity of doing good to men's souls while they were 
taking care of their bodies. The Venerable Society, 
says Bryan Edwards,^ found themselves under the disa- 
greeable necessity, not only of supporting the system of 
slavery which was bequeathed to them with the land, but 
were induced also, from the best motives, to purchase 
occasionally a certain number of negroes " to keep up the 
stock." But the Society went a step further in Carolina. 
It fell upon the singular plan of purchasing negroes to 
educate and devote as slaves for the purpose of educating 
other negro slaves. 

In the South Carolina Grazette of March 11, 1743, there 

1 Howe's Rist. Fresh. Ch., 247. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. TI, 2:39. 

8 Edwards's Hist, of West Indies, Appendix, vol. II, 35. 



246 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

is an advertisement by the Rev. Alexander Garden, the 
commissary of the Bishop of London, stating that 
the Society having long had much at heart the propa- 
gation of the Gospel among the negro and Indian slaves 
in his Majesty's colonies in America, had resolved on the 
plan of purchasing some country-born young negroes, 
causing them to be instructed to read the Bible and in 
the chief precepts of the Christian religion, and employing 
them as schoolmasters for the instruction of negro and 
Indian children born in the colonies. The advertise- 
ment goes on to state that in pursuance of this plan 
the Society had purchased about fifteen months before 
two such negroes for this service, and appropriated 
one of them for a school at Charlestown who would be 
sufficiently qualified in a few months, and to whom all the 
negro and Indian children of the parish might be sent 
for education without charge to the masters and owners. 
The commissary concludes with an appeal for a voluntary 
contribution of X400 currency to build a schoolhouse for 
the purpose, which he consents should be put up in a 
corner of the glebe land near the parsonage. This appeal 
was answered, and in the Gazette of April 2, 1744, Dr. 
Garden publishes an account of the receipts and expendi- 
tures, by which it appears that he had received contribu- 
tions to the amount of £226. Among the contributors 
were the Hon. Charles Pinckney, Joseph Wragg, Robert 
Pringle, Jacob Motte, Col. Othneil Beale, Benjamin 
Smith, and Sarah Trott. 

The two negro boys so purchased received the baptis- 
mal names of Henry and Andrew. The school was estab- 
lished, and the experiment tried in the hope that the 
negroes would receive instructions from teachers of their 
own race with more facility and willingness than from 
white teachers. The school was continued for twenty-two 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 247 

years, first under the supervision of Commissary Garden 
as Rector of St. Philip's, then of his successor, the Rev. 
Richard Clarke, then of the Rev. Robert Smith, afterward 
the first Bishop of South Carolina. 

The Rev. Mr. Garden wrote to the Society October 10, 
1743, that the negro school in Charlestown was likely to 
succeed, and consisted of 30 children. He further in- 
formed them that he intended to ejnploy both the negro 
youths in teaching in this school until their services should 
be wanted for similar institutions in the country parishes. 
He was of the opinion that 30 or 40 would annually be 
discharged, capable of reading the Scriptures aiid suffi- 
ciently instructed in the chief principles of the Christian 
religion. In consequence of this favorable report the 
Society sent to the school a large number of Bibles, 
Testaments, Common-prayer Books, and spelling-books. 
In 1744 upward of 60 children were instructed in it daily, 
18 of Avhom read in the Testament, 20 in the Psalter, and 
the rest in the spelling-book. i In 1746 there were 55 
children under tuition, and 15 adults were instructed in 
the evening. 2 In 1755 there were 70 children in the 
school, and books were given for their use.^ In 1757 Mr. 
Clarke informed the Society that the negro school in 
Charlestown was flourishing and full of children, and 
from the success of the institution he lamented " the want 
of civil establishments " in the province for the Christian 
education of 50,000 negroes.* But one of the negro 
teachers died, and the other, Harry, " turned out profli- 
gate"; and as the societj^had not invested to any greater 
extent in slaves " to keep up the stock " for the purpose 
of education, they had no other black or colored person to 
take charge of the school, and it was discontinued. 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 156, 157. ^ Ibid., 174. 

2 Ibid., 158. •* Ibid., 178. 



248 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

But the purchase of negro slaves for devotion to pious 
and religious purposes was not confined to the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel. Mr. Whitefield and 
Mr. James Habersham, who together had established the 
Bethesda Orphan House in Georgia, were mainly instru- 
mental in inducing tlie trustees of the colony to relax 
their prohibition against the introduction of slavery into 
that province. Mr. Whitefield, in 1741, gave the trustees 
a most practical lesson in his views by planting a tract of 
land which he called " Providence," with negro labor 
bought and paid for as his own slaves, for the support of 
his Orphan House. He writes March 15, 1747 : — 

" I last week bought at a very cheap rate a plantation of 6-40 acres 
of excellent land with a good house, farm, and outhouses, and 60 
acres of ground, cleaned, fenced, and fit for rice and everything that 
will be necessary for provisions. One negro has been given me, 
some more I propose to purchase this week." 

And again in June of the same year he writes : — 

" God is delivering me out of my embarrassments by degrees. With 
the collections made at Charlestown I have purchased a plantation and 
some slaves, which I intend to devote to the use of Bethesda." 

On the 6th of December, 1748, he complains to the 
trustees that very little proficiency had been made in tlie 
cultivation of his land, and that, entirely owing to 
the necessity he was under of making use of white hands. 
He writes again : ^ — 

" Had a negro been allowed I should have had a sufficiency to sup- 
port a great many orphans, without expending half the sum which 
has been laid out. An unwillingness to let so good a design drop, 
and having a real conviction that it must necessarily, if some other 
method was not fixed upon to prevent it — these two considerations, 
honored gentlemen, prevailed upon me about two years ago, through 

^Hist. ofOa. (Stevens), 306-310. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 24l> 

the bountj' of my friends, to purcliase a plantation in .Soutli Carolina 
where negroes are allowed. Blessed be God, the plantation has suc- 
ceeded, and though at present I have only eight working hands, yet 
in all probability there will be more raised in one year, and with a 
quarter the expense, than has been produced at Bethesda for several 
years last past. This confirms me in the opinion I have entertained 
for a long time that Georgia never can or will he a Jlourishing province 
without negroes are allowed." 

We have seen the courts of England dechiring negro 
slaves merchandise, the law officers of the Crown 
explaining that baptism did not effect any change in the 
legal status of the slaves ; we have seen the Bishop of 
London, in his zeal for the conversion of the negroes, 
assuring their masters that not even in the eyes of the 
Church was there any such alteration in their condition 
by conversion, and enjoining upon the negroes to submit 
to the bondage of slavery as ordained of God, and 
explaining to them that baptism was no means of freedom 
in this world, but only of salvation in the next ; we have 
now the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and 
the Evangelist Whitefield purchasing and owning slaves 
as a means of carrying on the work of Christianity. All 
this was strengthening the hold of the institution of 
slavery upon the people, whose apprehensions in regard 
to the increasing number of negroes were inducing them 
to check its growth. But even in this, as we shall soon 
see, they were thwarted by the action of the Royal gov- 
ernment at the instance of the merchants in London. 



CHAPTER XIV 

1743-50 

William Bull, first as President of the Council and then 
as Lieutenant Governor, had now been administering tlie 
government of South Carolina since the 22d of November, 
1735, a period of eight years. James Glen, it will be 
recollected, had been appointed Governor on the 23d of 
December, 1738 ; but though frequent announcements were 
made in England that he was about to sail, he did not act- 
ually arrive in the province until the 19th of December, 
1743. James Glen was born at Linleithgow, Scotland, in 
1701, and was educated at the University of Leyden. In 
1722 he inherited from his father two estates, Bonnington 
and Longcroft. He belonged to a set of young Scotch- 
men who held political offices in London and in America. 
He himself was Inspector of Seigniories in Scotland, and 
retained that office for several years after his appointment 
to the governorship of South Carolina. The Gazette of 
the 21st thus announces his coming: — 

" Last Saturday arrived here in the Tartar n)an-of-war, commanded 
by Captain Ward, his Excellency, James Glenn, Governor and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Province and Vice Admiral of the same. Upon 
a signal of five guns being discharged from Fort Johnson, tiie 
Charlestown Regiment was drawn up under arms upon the Bay, 
extending in two lines facing one another from the Council Chamber 
and Gibb's wharf. His Excellency, in passing by Fort Johnson, was 
saluted by the guns of that fort; ■when the ship came before the town 
by the guns also at Granville's, Craven's, and Broughton's batteries. 
As soon as she came to anchor the Clerk of the Council and Master in 

260 



It 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 251 

Chancery, having been first sent on board to wait on his Excellency and 
to show him a proper place of landing, he was received by the Honor- 
able Edward Atkin and Charles Pinckney, Esquires, as members of 
his Majesty's Council, who conducted his Excellency through the two 
lines of foot to the Council Chamber, to his Honor, the Lieutenant 
Governor, attended by the rest of the members of the Council then on 
the spot. His Excellency having then produced his Majesty's com- 
mission he was conducted by them — the sword of State borne before 
— and attended by the Honorable the Commons' House, and many 
officers and other gentlemen of distinction, to Granville's Bastion, 
where the same was published in due form, which was followed by 
three whirras(?), a discharge of the cannon at the Bastions, and a gen- 
eral volley of the regiment. Then his P^xcellency, attended by all 
the gentlemen present, marched back in like manner to the Council 
Chamber, being saluted as he passed by all the officers of the regiment. 
And having then qualified himself to act by taking the usual oaths, 
the regiment being drawn up as before on Broad Street, his Excellency 
attended again in the same manner, walked to Shepheard's Tavern, 
where a handsome entertainment was provided for him, and a numer- 
ous company concluded this day with joy, the houses being hand- 
somely illuminated." 

On the same day Governor Glen issued his proclama- 
tion, assuming administration of the government. Hewatt 
describes Governor Glen as a man of considerable knowl- 
edge, courteous and polite, exceedingly fond of military 
parade and ostentation. He did not, however, bring with 
him to his office a reputation which would have favorably 
predisposed the province to his administration. Indeed, 
the "Traders of South Carolina," upon seeing the para- 
graph in the newspapers announcing his appointment, 
addressed the Duke of Newcastle a paper, intimating 
that they were afraid that he was wanting in ability and 
experience, and hoping that his Grace would not be guided 
by the mere recommendations of friends, but would fully 
investigate the merits and qualifications of a person before 
ratifying him in an appointment of so much importance. ^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 271. 



252 HISTORY OB^ SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor Glen's appointment, as Hewatt says, was so far 
proper, as he possessed qualifications which rendered his 
government in the settled part of the province respectable, 
and the people living under it for several years happy and 
contented.^ But his conduct in regard to the Indians 
and the settlement of the upper part of the province, 
which during his administration was to become the chief 
executive business, has been severely criticised. Indeed, 
Adair, a suthciently intellectual though not altogether dis- 
interested contemporary, Logan observes, does not hesitate 
to charge him with the deliberate sacrifice of the public 
interest to the promotion of his own private aggrandize- 
ment, but in what particulars is not stated. ^ Governor 
Glen's administration is nevertheless indissolubly associ- 
ated with the beginning of the era of prosperity to the 
province, and it was while he was Governor that a new 
chapter was opened in its history, its extent greatly en- 
larged, and another people added to its population. 

Lieutenant Governor Bull had given the General As- 
sembly leave to adjourn until the 10th of January. This 
Governor Glen considered it expedient to confirm. When 
it met on that day, in his speech ^ announcing that his 
Majesty had been pleased to appoint him Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief, he said that as he could not better 
answer his Prince's intentions, and the high trust imposed 
in him, than by making the welfare and prosperity of the 
province his special care, so nothing could be more agree- 
able to his own inclination. In order to this, he went 
on to say, the power and prerogatives of the Crown shoukl 
never be stretched beyond the well-known and accustomed 
limits. The rights, privileges, and immunities of the 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 105. 

2 Logan's HLst. of Upper So. Ca., 457. 
' So. Ca. Gazette, January 11, 1744. 



ii 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 253 

people should be sacred and inviolable. He would make 
it his daily study to attain a more perfect knowledge of 
the laws and constitutions of the province, that by mak- 
ing them the rule of his own conduct he might with the 
greater impartiality put them in execution. Justice he 
promised should neither be delayed nor denied to any, 
but every one equally supported in the enjoyment of 
what was his own. 

Fair enough words these were certainly. But in the 
study which he promised of the laws and constitution of 
the province, his Excellency was to find that the colonists 
had made considerable strides in the principles of constitu- 
tional government, and that the limits of prerogative to 
which they had become accustomed, and which he had 
unwarily announced he would not stretch, had been 
drawn in to a much greater extent than he was aware 
when making the promise ; and much of this he would 
learn had been accomplished while the government was 
left to the administration of Lieutenant Governors who 
were gentlemen of the province. "I hope," his Excellency 
continued, " I need not recommend to you to make due 
provision for defraying the necessary charge of the gov- 
ernment, and in particular for the contingent charges of 
both Houses of Assembly and for salaries to the clerks 
and of all officers necessary to the administration of the 
government of the province; and I have so little doubt of 
your making competent provision for your Governor that 
I had not mentioned it to you. Was I not expressly com- 
manded to do so by my instructions? " 

" It is a considerable time," he said in conclusion, " since 
I was appointed Governor of the province, most of which 
has been employed in its service, and since I have acted 
generally by advice from here, I apprehend it is well 
known to all of vou T think I have served with success. I 



254 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

am sure I have done it with zeal, and I hope to your satis- 
faction." 

It will be observed that Governor Glen does not claim 
that he had been detained in England all the five years 
since he was appointed Governor, because of the affairs of 
the province to be transacted by him. He held an office 
in Scotland, the duties of which he probably preferred 
to those in Carolina. In one of the premature announce- 
ments of his coming, it was said that he had been engaged 
in securing a permanent settlement for the Governor of 
the province; but here, as we see in his first speech to the 
General Assembly, he announces that he is instructed to 
call upon them to make a competent provision for their 
Governor. It was not at all uncommon, as we have seen, 
for a Governor to remain in England while the Lieutenant 
Governor administered the government in his absence, 
and Governor Glen was but following this practice, rather 
than remaining in England in the interest of the province. 

But while he had delayed in England, a very important 
change had been effected in the constitutional form of the 
government of the province against which he now pro- 
tested. He had come out full of the importance of his 
position as Governor, and embued with an exalted idea of 
the power and prerogative of the Crown of which he was 
the representative. He had come out to govern tlie 
colony. He found the colony bent upon governing itself 
under his Majesty's protection. On the 6th of February, 
1743-44, he writes to the Duke of Newcastle, the Secretary 
of State, that he found the whole frame of government 
unhinged, and the Governor divested of the power placed 
in him, which power was parcelled out to many hands, 
principally commissioners, etc. This, he concludes, has 
been permitted through the indolence of some of the 
Governors, or their continual absence, upon their own 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 255 

private affairs. Mr. Bull, the Lieutenant Governor, has 
the character of a very worthy person, but he, the Gov- 
ernor, knows nothing of him from personal knowledge, he 
having been sixty miles distant in the country — that is, 
at his plantation Sheldon, in Prince William's Parish - — 
since the Governor's first arrival, with the exception of 
one day. Then he comes to the important matter. The 
custom, he says, had previously existed uninterrupted in 
the province for all Governors or Commanders-in-Chief to 
be present at all meetings of the Council, whether as a 
Court of Chancery, as a Council, or as a House of Assem- 
bly; but he found upon the journal of the council this 
extraordinary paragraph under date of 1739, April 11th: — 

'' The governor or commander in chief being present 
during the debates of this House is of an unparliamentary 
nature, it is therefore resolved that we will enter into no 
debate during his presence." After this, he says, very 
little regfard or notice seems to have been taken of the 
Governor, and with the exception of one or two instances 
his name does not appear to have been entered in the 
journals.^ In a subsequent part of the letter he states, 
however, that the Council had agreed to act more con- 
formably to his Majesty's instructions by allowing him 
to be present at all meetings, as was the case before the 
year 1739 ; but this, as it appeared afterward, was only 
on the expressed condition that he was not to speak a 
word, not even to tell the Council that he had instructions 
upon the subject of their consideration. 

This was indeed an important step, which had thus 
been taken by the Council in South Carolina, — a step 
wliich, Governor Glen asserted, had been taken in no other 
colony, — as it formally separated and defined the three 
branches of the government into legislative, executive, 

1 Coll. Hist. Sue. of So. Ca., vol. II, 286. 



256 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and judicial. The Governor had the power of veto; this 
was not questioned. No law could be passed without his 
consent and approval. But this action on the part of the 
Council deprived him of a vote in the Council upon the 
passage as a measure by that body before it was sub- 
mitted for his approval. This clear demarcation of the 
line between the executive and legislative departments 
was a great advance in constitutional government. 

The General Assembly which met on the 10th of January 
had promptly provided for the support of the Governor, 
XlOO was allowed for rent of a house, and X500 for a sal- 
ary. There was some debate whether this salary should 
be given in advance or at the end of the year, but it was 
determined that it should be in advance. 

Five years afterward, October 10, 1748, Governor 
Glen writes another most interesting letter. ^ Addressing 
the Duke of Bedford, his Excellency, alluding with exulta- 
tion to an assertion made by him in a recent letter to his 
Grace, that the province would within a few years of 
peace become the greatest in his Majesty's dominions, 
writes that he little expected then that the colony was so 
nearly approaching that happy era, and hopes that he will 
be able with truth to say of Charlestown and the prov- 
ince that he found them in ashes, and left them fair, 
fortified, and flourishing. But amidst the improvement 
and prosperity which his Excellency saw, and in which he 
appears heartily to have rejoiced, he saw also as clearly the 
advance the people were making in self-government and 
their growing independence of Royal authority. The fact 
he recognized, but could not understand. He could not 
but believe that it would be better for the colony if it 
was more dependent upon the mother country, and more 
subservient to its rule. 

1 Coll. Hist. Sue. of So. Ca., vol. II, 303. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 257 

In his letter to the Duke, therefore, he expresses the 
opinion that a new modelling of the constitution would 
add to the happiness of the province and preserve its de- 
pendence upon the Crown, any weakening of which and 
deviation from the constitution of the mother country is 
in his view dangerous. He goes on to complain that 
almost all the places of profit or of trust are dis]30sed of 
by the General Assembly. The Treasurer is nominated 
and cannot be displaced but by that body. Beside the 
Treasurer they appoint also the Commissary, the Indian 
Agent, the Comptroller of the Duties upon Imports and 
Exports, the Powder Receiver, etc. The executive 
parts of the government are lodged in different sets of 
commissioners, e.g. Commissioners of the Markets, of 
the Workhouse, of the Pilots, of the Fortifications, etc. 
Not only civil posts but ecclesiastical preferment are in 
the disposal or election of the people, although by the 
King's instructions to the Governor the power of collat- 
ing to all livings, of which the King is patron, is invested 
in him ; and the King is patron of all the parishes in the 
province,! the churches being built upon his lands with 
moneys raised for his use, and the stipends (excepting 
what is paid from home by the Society for Propagating 
the Gospel) arising from taxes imposed for the use of his 
Majesty ; but here the ministers have their charges, and 
new ones are introduced without any notice being taken 
by the Governor ; probably it is owing to this, he says, that 
the Governor, although Supreme Magistrate and Repre- 
sentative of the King, is not prayed for in any parish, 
although the Assembly is prayed for during its sittings. 

1 I.e. the appointment to rectories of parishes, etc. In Virginia and 
Maryland, and in other colonies, the Governor claimed and exercised the 
right of induction as the representative of the King. Hist, of So. Ca. 
under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 442. 
VOL. n — s 



258 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The above-mentioned officers, he says, and most of the 
commissioners are named by the General Assembly, and 
are responsible to them alone, and whatever be their igno- 
rance, neglect or misconduct, the Governor has no power 
to remove or disj)lace them. Thus the people have the 
whole of the administration in their hands, and thereby the 
Crown is stripped of its power. It was Governor Glen's 
desire and purpose to keep the province as dependent as 
he could upon England and her Royal master. Thus he 
mentions as among the things which weakened the King's 
prerogative the effort on the part of the colonists to 
manufacture their own wearing apparel. He complains 
that during the low price of the produce of the province 
and the extravagant rates of British manufactures, it was 
impossible to dissuade the inhabitants from working up 
clothes for their own wear, other than by convincing them 
that by employing the same hands in making indigo and 
other produce these goods could be purchased at a cheaper 
rate than they could make them, and that unless they 
encouraged vessels to bring in their manufactures their 
produce would lie on their hands. Thus was this pernicious 
doctrine of dependence upon staple crops alone, to the 
exclusion of domestic produce and manufactures, so early 
instilled into the minds of our people, and impressed with 
all the weight of Royal influence. It was this doctrine that 
lay at the root of the Navigation acts and the wliole policy 
of England. The colonies of Virginia and JVIaryland 
were to be restricted to the great staple crop of tobacco, 
South Carolina to rice and indigo, and the Islands to 
sugar, in exchange for which they were to take the manu- 
factures of the mother country. 

The Governor then again recurs to his exclusion from 
the Council Board, which he writes he told them could 
not be warranted from the practice of any other province 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVEKNMEKT 269 

in America and was contrary to the British constitution. 
He alludes to another matter in which he finds his power 
greatly curtailed. By his instructions he can call an 
Assembly only with the advice of the Council ; but this 
the Council construe to mean that they must sign the 
election writs as well as the Governor. Of this he justly 
complains as an encroachment upon the Governor's pre- 
rogative. 

His Excellency then turns his attention to the House of 
Commons, and among the things he regards as needing 
reformation is the election by ballot. This, he considers, 
the colonists ought not to be indulged in, for the closer 
they adhere to the customs at home, the safer they will 
be ; for his own part he wishes it were altered, as any per- 
son who attends the balloting box may, with very little 
sleight of hand, give the election to whom he pleases. 
More justly he objects to the unequal appointment of 
members of the House. The number of members, he 
says, is forty-five, but without any rule of proportion, some 
places sending five, some four, three, two, and one, and 
some equally entitled not allowed to send any, e.g. the 
Township of Orangeburg, where many foreigners are set- 
tled, has twice petitioned to the General Assembly to be 
allowed representatives without avail. This they com- 
plain of as a violation of public faith, for they say they 
were promised equal privileges with other subjects and 
are entitled to it, having above a hundred householders 
in the township, and paying a full proportion of taxes 
with others ; besides, every township, whenever it is 
erected into a parish, has a minister paid by the public, 
whereas these poor people are without either minister or 
schoolmaster. The custom of constituting members in 
fixing the representation by acts of Assembly he regards 
as an infringement of the prerogative of the Crown, and 



260 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

suggests a plan for remedy of the evil, viz., that every- 
place that had been accustomed to send members to the 
Assembly for a term of years, say for example, ten, 
should send two members, and every other place or town- 
ship having one hundred householders to send one until 
the same term should be complete, when it should send 
two equally with the others. 

But the greatest evil in legislation, Governor Glen 
wrote, was in regard to the quorum of the" House. No 
less than nineteen are absolutely required to constitute a 
House, without which number they can do no act except 
adjourn. This caused many delays. He had seen fre- 
quently seventeen or eighteen attending and adjourning 
day after day for a week together, until at length it was 
thought proper to prorogue them for a month or two, 
at the expiration of which time the same inconveni- 
ences occurring, it had been necessary to dissolve them. 
As at present constituted a party of pleasure made by 
a few of the members renders it impossible for the rest 
to transact business, and sometimes he has seen a party 
made to go out of town purposely to break the House and 
thus prevent the success of what they could not otherwise 
oppose. 

In a subsequent letter, written March 13, 1748-49,^ in 
regard to the case of Chief Justice Whitaker, Governor 
Glen touches upon a subject which was to be the source 
of much vexation and trouble — and that was the manner of 
the appointment of Chief Justices. Upon the death of 
Chief Justice Wright, in 1739, Mr. Benjamin Whitaker 
had been appointed in his place by Lieutenant Governor 
Bull,2 and he had been allowed to retain the position. 
For several years he had been paralyzed and unfit for his 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 305. 
^ So. Ca. Gazette, November 24, 1739. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 261 

duties by reason of his infirmities. Governor Glen had 
given him a leave of absence for twelve months to go to 
Europe, which leave had run into twenty and he had 
returned in a worse state than when he left. It was 
rumored, however, that he had written to England to 
resign, and acting upon this the Governor recommends 
James Graeme, "a gentleman whose talents have raised 
him to the head of the bar " for appointment to the place. 
In making this recommendation Governor Glen quotes 
Lord Bacon as saying " that the true temper of a Chief 
Justice toward a Governor should neither be too servilely 
to second him, nor factiously to oppose him." In 
America, however, he writes. Chief Justices are appointed 
without the knowledge or the interest of the Governor, 
and so look upon themselves as independent of him, 
studying to oppose and thwart all his measures, whereas, 
argues his Excellency, always coming back to the point 
of strengthening the King's prerogative and the Gover- 
nor's influence, if recommendations from the Governors 
were admitted these gentlemen would strengthen a 
Governor's hands, and his Majesty's service would be 
benefited — a course which he earnestly urged upon his 
Grace the Duke of Bedford. The appointments in Eng- 
land of Chief Justices for South Carolina were to be- 
come a gross scandal, and to be one of the chief means of 
alienating the sentiments of the people of the province 
from their love to the mother country. Chief Justice 
Whitaker returned to England without informing the 
Governor, but with the avowed intention of remaining 
abroad. As his commission ran, " during pleasure and his 
residence in the province " Governor Glen availed himself 
of the provision, and at the request of the Council, who 
voted the post vacant, appointed Mr. Graeme to the position 
until his Majesty's pleasure should be known, and recom- 



262 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mended Mr. Graeme for permanent appointment.^ A year 
after, the appointment was confirmed by the King, and Mr. 
Graeme was commissioned not only Chief Justice of the 
province but also Judge in Admiralty. ^ 

Governor Glen was called upon by the Lords Commis- 
sioners to answer a series of questions propounded by 
that body in regard to the material condition of the prov- 
ince. His answers were very carefully prepared, and 
furnish a fund of information upon the economic condi- 
tions of the province at the time of his administration. ^ 

It would open too large a field, his Excellency reports, 
to enter more minutely into the nature of the soil, but he 
would state what the labor of one negro on our best lands 
would annually produce in rice, corn, and indigo. The 
best land for rice, he says, is a wet, deep, miry soil, such 
as is generally to be found in cypress swamps, or a black 
greasy mould with a clay foundation ; but that the very 
best lands might be improved by laying them under 
water at proper seasons. Good crops are made even the 
first year, when the surface of the earth appears almost 
covered with bodies and limbs of trees. The proper 
months for sowing are March, April, and Ma}'". The 
rice is planted in trenches, or rows, made with a hoe, 
about three inches deep, and kept pretty clean from 
Aveeds, and in the end of August or September it is fit 
to be reaped. It is necessary to remain in the stubble 
until dry, which requires about two or three days if the 
weather is favorable, and is then lioused or put in large 
sacks. Then it is threshed with a flail and winnoAved, 
which was formerly a very tedious process, but was then 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Co., vol. II, 306. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, October 8, 1751. 

8 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 190 et seq. ; Documents connected with So. 
Ca. Hist. (Weston), 05. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 307. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 263 

performed with great ease by a very simple machine, a 
wind-fan lately invented, and found to be a prodigious 
improvement. Then he describes the process of grinding 
and pounding, to free the rice from the thick skin, or 
chaff, and afterward the sifting to separate the whole 
from the broken grains. 

Thirty slaves are reckoned a proper number for one 
plantation, tended by one overseer ; these, the Governor 
says, in favorable seasons and on good land, produce a 
surprising quantity of rice. Lest he should be blamed 
by any induced to come out upon such favorable accounts, 
and who might not reap so great a harvest, or lest he 
should mislead their Lordships of the Board of Trade, he 
chose rather to send the common computation throughout 
the province, communihus annis, which is that each good 
working hand employed in rice makes four barrels and a 
half ; each barrel weighing five hundred weight net, be- 
sides a quantity of provisions of all kinds for all his slaves, 
horses, cattle, poultry, of the plantation, for the ensuing 
year. Rice, he reports, last year (1748), as being at a 
medium, about 45s. currency per hundred ; ^ and all this 
year (1749) at 55s., or X3, though not many years ago it 
was sold at such low prices as 10s. and 12s. per hundred. 

Indian corn delights, he says, in high loose land, it does 
not agree with clay, and is killed with much wet. It is 
generally planted in ridges made by a plough or hoe, 
and in holes about six or eight feet from each other. It 
requires to be kept from weeds, and will produce from 
fifteen to fifty bushels an acre. Some extraordinarily rich 
land in good seasons will yield eighty bushels, but the 
common computation is that a negro will tend six acres, 

^ The currency of the province was sometimes as low as ten for one 
sterling, though its average was only seven for one. Ramsay's Hist, of 
So. C'a., vol. 11,168. 



264 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and that each acre will produce from ten to thirty-five 
bushels; it sells generally for about 10s. currency a bushel. 

Indigo, he reports, was of several kinds. It was gener- 
ally cultivated on the Islands, and requires a high, loose, 
and tolerably rich soil. It is an annual plant. A good 
acre of land may produce about eight weight of good in- 
digo, and one slave may manage two acres and upward, 
and raise provisions besides, and yet have all the winter 
months to saw lumber and be otherwise employed. 

The Governor gives a table of the number of vessels 
that had loaded in Charlestown in ten years (1736 to 
1745 inclusive), averaging 220 a year. His table of those 
from Christmas, 1745, to Christmas, 1746, is particularly 
interesting, as it shows that the commerce of South Caro- 
lina was eleven times as great with Europe as it was with 
the northern provinces, and three times as great with the 
West Indies as with the sister colonies. There left 
Charlestown 86 vessels bound for Europe, with 10,555 
tons of merchandise, valued at £68,607.10, 121 bound 
for West Indies with 4018 tons at X 18,081, and 48 for 
the northern provinces with 1720 tons at .£6020. The 
next year the exports were nearly eighteen times as great 
to Europe, and four times as great to the West Indies as 
to the other colonies in America. 

In answer to another inquiry the Governor replies that 
the quantity of the British manufactures annually con- 
sumed by the inhabitants of the province seems too great, 
and the sort of goods bought too fine, and this he considers 
ill calculated for the circumstances of an infant colony, 
by which means the colonists violate the golden rule of 
commerce, to wit, let your exports exceed, or at least 
balance, your imports. 

The Governor reports that there was no country where 
there was less illegal trade, so far as he could learn, and 



Jl 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 265 

if there were any, it would be difficult to prevent it by 
reason of the great number of rivers and creeks and the 
small numbers of officers of the customs. He subjoins an 
account of the goods exported from Charlestown, the 
produce of the province from the 1st of November, 1747, 
to the 1st of November, 1748, amounting in sterling to 
X161,365 18s. 

The three great commodities of export in Carolina have 
been rice, indigo, and cotton ; the first and second have 
flourished in the eighteenth, and the first and third in the 
nineteenth, century, cotton supplanting indigo toward 
the end of the last century. 

The story of the introduction of rice has before been 
told.i We have no accurate knowledge of the amount of 
it raised before the suppression of the pirates, though, as 
we have seen, the commerce which it employed constituted 
the attraction of the pirates to the Carolina coast ; ^ but 
in the j^ear 1724, that is, about six years after, 18,000 
barrels of rice were exported. ^ Governor Glen reported 
that for the year 1729, when his Majesty purchased the 
colony of South Carolina from the Proprietors, their 
annual exports and imports had doubled in value. Rice, 
in particular, had increased in a great proportion. From 
1720 to 1729 (both inclusive), ten years, the whole export 
was 264,755 barrels, making 44,081 tons. From 1730 
to 1739, ten years, the whole export was 499,525 bar- 
rels, 99,905 tons, so that the last ten years exceeded the 
former by 235,037 barrels, or 55,824 tons. Of this great 
quantity of rice scarcely one-fifteenth part was con- 
sumed either in Great Britain or in any part of the 
British dominions, the produce of the other fourteen parts 
being clear gain to the nation ; whereas almost all the 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. undpr Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 348, 349. 

2 Ibid. 8 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 205. 



266 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sugar and one-fourth part of the tobacco exported from 
the British colonies were consumed by the people of Great 
Britain ; from whence, argued his Excellency, it is evi- 
dent that the national gain arising from rice is several 
times as great in proportion as the national gain arising 
from either sugar or tobacco. He estimated that for the 
then current year, 1749, the crop in South Carolina would 
be above 90,000 barrels, of which there would not be 3000 
barrels used in the province, so that the clear national 
gain upon that export would be very great. At the low- 
est computation, of 25s. sterling per barrel, the 87,000 
barrels exported would amount in value to ,£108,750 ster- 
ling at the first hand, whereto there must be added the 
charge of freight, etc., from South Carolina to Europe, 
which amounted to more than the first cost of the rice, so 
he computed that the least gain upon this article of com- 
merce for that year would be X220,000 (i.e. over 11,000,- 
000) over and above the naval advantage of annually 
employing more than 60 ships of 100 tons each. 

Rice being an enumerated commodity, his Excellency 
went on to remind the government, it could not be exported 
from South Carolina without giving bond for double the 
value that it should be landed in Great Britain, or in 
some of the British plantations, excepting to the south- 
ward of Cape Finisterre, which was permitted by Act of 
Parliament of 1729, the favor having been granted in order 
that the rice might arrive there more seasonably and in 
better condition ; but this, his Excellency goes on to ex- 
plain, had not proved as beneficial as had been anticipated ; 
for in the ten years that followed not more than 3570 
barrels had been sold to the Spaniards, making only 357 
barrels annually, nor did he hope for any improvement in 
that market, as the Spaniards were supplied with an in- 
ferior sort of rice from Turkey, equally agreeable to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 267 

them, and a great deal cheaper tlian the Carolina article. 
There was little demand for rice from France, but 9000 
barrels having been consumed there in two years. Ger- 
many and Holland were the best markets, where the greater 
part of it was consumed during the winter season, when 
pease and all kinds of pulse were scarce, to meet which 
market it should arrive before the rivers were frozen. ^ 

Indigo was the second great staple of South Carolina. ^ 
Its original country is Hindostan, but it had been natural- 
ized in the West Indies, from which it was introduced 
into South Carolina by Miss Eliza Lucas, afterward the 
wife of Chief Justice Charles Pinckney, and the mother of 
the two great Carolinians, General Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney and General Thomas Pinckney. Her father, 
Colonel George Lucas, Governor of Antigua, observing 
and encouraging his daughter's botanical turn and fond- 
ness for all that related to a knowledge of the vegetable 

1 An Account of the Quantities of Rice wliich have been exported from 
the Province of South Carolina within 10 Years from 1730 to 1739 distin- 
guishing tlie Total quantity sent to each of the Countries or Dominions 
whereunto the same was exported : — 

Barrels 

To Portugal in all 83,379 

" Gibraltar 958 

" Spain 3,570 

" France only the last Two Years at most 9,500 

" Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Plantations, by the 

largest calculations, cannot exceed 30,000 

" Holland, Hamburgh, and Bremen, including about 7000 

barrels to Sweden and Denmark 372,118 

The Total exported in these Ten Years 499,525 

Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 269, 270. 

2 In the following account of the introduction and development of the 
growth of indigo planting and manufacture, we have followed closely Dr. 
Ramsay. See Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 209-212. For Miss 
Lucas's own account of her experiment and success, see Mrs. Ravenel's 
charming volume, Eliza Pinckney, of the Scribner Series of the Women 
of Colonial and Revolutionary Times, 102-107. 



268 HIvSTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

kingdom, frequently sent to her tropical seeds and fruits 
to be planted for her amusement on a plantation which 
he had settled at Wappoo, nearly opposite Charlestown. 
Among others he sent her some indigo seed as a subject 
of experiment. She planted it in March, 1741, or 1742. 
It was destroyed by frost. She repeated the experiment 
in April ; this was cut down by a worm. She persevered, 
nevertheless, and her third attempt was successful. 
Governor Lucas, on learning that the plant had seeded 
and ripened, sent from Montserrat one Cromwell, a man 
who had been accustomed to the making of indigo, and 
engaged him at high wages to come to South Carolina to 
teach his daughter the process of extracting the dye from 
the weed. This expert indigo planter did not, however, 
deal honestly with Miss Lucas, supposing probably that 
from her youth he could easily deceive her. He made a 
mystery of the business, and indeed endeavored to pre- 
vent the success of the experiment ; but Miss Lucas was 
observant and carefully watched him. She engaged also 
Mr. Deveaux, who had some personal knowledge of the 
business, to superintend his operations. Notwithstanding 
his duplicity she obtained in this way a knowledge of the 
process. Soon after this she married Colonel Charles 
Pinckney, who had then been Speaker of the Commons, 
and was afterward for a time Cliief Justice, of which we 
shall hereafter have occasion to speak ; and her father 
thereupon made her a present of all the indigo on his 
plantation at Wappoo — the first-fruits of her industry 
to her husband. The whole crop was saved for seed. 
Part Avas planted by Colonel Pinckney next year at 
Ashepoo, and the remainder given away to his friends in 
small quantities for the same purpose. They all suc- 
ceeded. From tliat time the culture of indigo was com- 
mon, and in a year or two it became an article of export. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 269 

Soon after the dye was successfully extracted from the 
cultivated plant Mr. Cattel made a present to Colonel 
Pinckney of some wild indigo which he had just discovered 
in the woods of Carolina. Experiments were instituted 
to ascertain its virtues. It proved capable of yielding 
good indigo, but was less productive than what had been 
imported. The attention of the planters was fixed on the 
latter. They pressed its culture with so much industry 
and success that in the year 114:1 a considerable quantity of 
it, to wit, 134,118 pounds weight valued at ,£117,353 5s. 
currency, £16,764 sterling,^ was sent to England, which 
induced the merchants trading to Carolina to petition Par- 
liament for a bounty on Carolina indigo. Upon examina- 
tion it was found that the French West India Islands 
supplied all the markets of Europe, and that Britain 
alone consumed annually 600,000 weight of French indigo, 
which at 5s. a pound cost the nation the sum of £150,000 
sterling. It was estimated that this might be saved by 
encouraging the cultivation of the plant in Carolina. An 
Act of Parliament was accordingly passed in 1748, allowing 
a bounty of Qd. per pound on indigo raised in the British 
American plantations and imported directly into Britain 
from the place of its growth. Thus encouraged, the plant- 
ers applied themselves with redoubled vigor, and vied with 
each other who should bring the best and greatest quan- 
tity of it to market. Some years, however, elapsed before 
they found the nice art of making it as good as the French. 
While many doubled their capital every three or four 
years by planting indigo, in the process of time they 
brought it to such perfection as not only to supply the 
mother country, but also to undersell the French at sev- 
eral European markets. Indigo proved more really bene- 
ficial to Carolina than the mines of Mexico or Peru were 

1 CaiToll's Coll., vol. II, 235. 



270 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to Sj)ain. In the year 1754 the export of indigo from the 
province amounted to 216,924 pounds, and shortly before 
the American Revolution to 1,107,660 pounds. In the 
revolutionary war it was less attended to than rice. In the 
year 1783 it again began to be cultivated, 2051 casks were 
exported, and it continued to form a valuable export for 
some years; but large importations of it from the East In- 
dies into England so lowered the price as to make it less 
profitable. Near the close of the eighteenth century it 
gave jjlace to the cultivation of cotton. 

The source of this vast wealth, the foundation of for- 
tunes, some of the remains of which still exist even to this 
late day, was the result of an experiment by a mere girl. 
Well may one, a worthy descendant, ask, " When will any 
new woman do more for her country ? " ^ 

But, though rice and indigo were now the great staples 
of the province, there was still an immense trade in peltries. 
This trade under the Proprietary government was con- 
ducted solely under the auspices of individual enterprise. 
But in 1716, partly for the sake of its enormous profits, 
and partly with the design of securing abetter control of the 
Indians in view of the public safety, the government 
assumed the direction of all its affairs and conducted them 
by a Board of Commissioners as a great public monopoly. ^ 
This Board at once dispatched a caravan, or periago,^ of 
goods to the Cherokees. In 1731 there were collected 
from all quarters in Charlestown as many as 225,000 deer- 
skins alone. The interval that elapsed between 1721 and 
1743 was without doubt, it is said, the most prosperous 

1 Eliza Pinckney, Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times (Mrs. 
Ravenel), 107. 

'^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, G77. 

* A kind of boat. Variously spelt periago, periagua, periauger, and 
pettiauger. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 271 

years of the peltry trade, and the most peaceful in the rela- 
tions of Carolina and the Cherokee nation. ^ Cornelius 
Dougherty, the oldest trader among the Cherokees, whose 
trading-house stood in the town of Tugaloo as late as 
1755, anticipated, if the winter of that year was but 
tolerably favorable for hunting, collecting from his dis- 
trict alone in the nation 1-4,000 of buckskin leathers. 
Three years before the entire nation had been mapped 
off into tliirteen hunting ranges or districts and a trader 
appointed to every one. Estimating these, says Logan, 
at but two-thirds of what Dougherty expected gathering, 
the production of the entire Cherokee country would be 
more than 100,000 pounds of buckskin leather besides the 
abundant supply of skins of other wild animals. The 
average weight of deerskins is four pounds to the skin, 
there being little difference in the weight, dry or raw. 
Dougherty expected, therefore, observes Logan, the hunt- 
ers in the Tugaloo range to bring down with their rifles 
3500 deer, making for the whole nation about 25,000 annu- 
ally. In 1755, 100 deerskins were worth in Charlestown 
about f 250 of our present money. Tugaloo, Dougherty's 
range alone, therefore, was expected to yield $62,500. 

In 1747 there were exported from Charlestown 200 
weight of beaver skins and 720 hogsheads of deerskins, 
worth in Carolina currency nearly £400,000, probably 
about $300,000 of our present money. ^ 

In Carolina, as a British province, sterling was the 
legal money ; but unfortunately there was very little of it 
in this province or in any of the British provinces. 
The greatest part of their current gold and silver was 
foreign coin, the uniform value of which, as we have seen, 
had been fixed by a proclamation of Queen Anne in 1707, 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Lofiau), 383. 

2 Ibid., 382-385 ; CarrolPs Coll., vol. II, 237. 



272 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and was known therefore as "proclamation money." ^ 
But the demand for more circulating medium in a new 
country than could be furnished in coin was so urgent 
that the regulation was not regarded, and the confusion 
arising from the different values of British sterling and 
provincial current paper money became general through- 
out the colonies. The value of the dollar differed in 
the different colonies ; in South Carolina it passed for 
£1 12s. 6d. The comparative value of sterling coin and 
paper money diverged so far from each other that after 
passing through intermediate grades it was finally settled 
at £1 of paper bills for =£1 sterling. At this rate it 
assumed the character of currency as distinct from ster- 
ling, and formed, as it were, another denomination and 
species of money. Until the currency had assumed this 
fixed relative value, great confusion and trouble occurred 
in contracts, but in subsequent contracts engagements 
were made in conformity to the standard. ^ 

Notwithstanding the restriction of the Navigation acts, 
the commerce of South Carolina was prospering under the 
Royal government, and in spite of war, pestilence, and fire 
the colony was growing rich. Each person, says Hewatt, 
had entire liberty to manage his affairs for his own profit 
and advantage, and having very little taxes to pay reaped 
almost the whole fruits of his industry. The best and 
most extensive market was open to the commodities he 
produced, and his staples increased in value in proportion 
to the great quantity raised and the demand for them in 
Europe. British manufactures he obtained at an easy rate, 
and drawbacks were allowed on articles of foreign manu- 
facture that might be brought cheaper to the American 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 483. 

2 Ramsay's IJist. of So. Co., vol. II, Hio, IG4 ; CaiToll's Coll., vol. II, 
256, 259. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



273 



market. Frugal planters doubled their capital every three 
or four years, and the progress toward independence and 
opulence was rapid. The plan of settling the townships, 
accompanied with Royal bounties, encouraged many op- 
pressed people from Ireland, Holland, and Germany to 
emigrate, from which the province was filling up with 
thrifty and industrious settlers. Though many of these 
came from manufacturing towns, excepting a few who 
took up their residence in Charlestown, they procured 
lands and applied themselves to pasturage and agricul- 
ture instead of trade and merchandise. They raised 
hemp, wheat, and maize in the interior parts of the 
province, and curing hams, bacon, and beef, they sup- 
plied the market with abundance of provisions, and found 
that in doing so they had taken the shortest way to easy 
and independent circumstances. ^ 

Governor Glen reported that there were no taxes upon 
either real or personal estate ; the public revenues being 
all raised by' three per cent duties laid upon spirituous 
liquors, wines, sugar, molasses, flour, biscuits, negro slaves, 
and upon all dry goods imported, and three per cent per 
skin upon all deerskins exported. These duties produced 
about £4500 per annum, out of which the yearly dis- 
bursements were : ^ — 

Stipends to 10 ministers of the Church of England 

For finishing and preparing fortifications 

For officers and soldiers doing duty in forts 

To the Governor 

For military. stores 

Accidental charges 

Total 

Which sum being taken oiit of 

There would remain yearly to cancel bills of credit to that amt 




1,000 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 127, 128. 

2 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 259. There is a mistake of £50 in the addition. 

VOL. II T 



274 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The number of white people in South Carolina, includ- 
ing men, women, and children, he reported, was about 
25,000, and the number of negroes 39,000. Of the latter 
the Governor says he is more positive because a tax is 
paid for them. He had computed the former by the num- 
ber of men on the muster rolls for the militia, Avhich is 
about 5000 between the ages of 16 and 60 years. Within 
three or four years before he wrote about 200 families of 
Germans had settled in the province, and about the like 
number from the British colonies ; while on the other 
hand the number of inhabitants who had left the province 
was but five or six who had run away with their slaves to 
escape their debts. ^ 

Of the white people 8^ parts were planters, 1| traders, 
and 2 parts artisans. The white people were 12 per cent 
of the whole, Indian subjects 66 per cent, and negro slaves 
22 per cent. The Episcopal party were 41 of 10 parts ; 
the Presbyterians, including the French who retain their 
own discipline, 4|; Anabaptists 1; and the Quakers \. 
The prices of labor were, currency, per day : a taylor 
5s., a shoemaker 2s. 6d., a smith 7s. 6^., a weaver 3s., a 
bricklayer 6s., a cooj^er 4s., carpenters and joiners 3 to 5s., 
a laborer Is. Sd. to 2s. a day with lodging and diet. 
Overseers of plantations, <£15 to X40 per annum. ^ 

1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 218. 2 jj^id., 260. 



CHAPTER XV 

1751-55 

In 1751 an act was passed ^ reciting that "the inhabit- 
ants of St. Philip, Charlestown, are become so numerous 
(and being daily increasing) that it is absolutely iiecessary 
to divide the said parish ; and the present church being 
insufficient for accommodating the said inhabitants, many 
families (professors of the Church of England) in the said 
town are deprived of the benefit of divine service for want 
of seats in the said church," and directed that " all that 
part of Charlestown situate and lying to the south- 
ward of Broad Street shall be, and is hereby declared to be, 
a distinct parish by itself and separate from St. Philip's, 
and shall hereafter be called and known by the name of 
the parish of St. Michael." It directed also that a church 
be erected on or near the place where the old church of 
St. Philip, Charlestown, formerly stood, at a cost of not 
more than £17,000 proclamation money. In pursuance 
of this act, the corner-stone of the present edifice was laid, 
February 17, 1752, by his Excellency Governor Glen, 
which ceremony was followed by a grand dinner. The 
dinner over, his Majesty's health was drunk, followed by a 
discharge of the cannon at Granville Bastion. Then the 
health of the Royal family and the other Royal toasts 
were announced and drunk. The Gazette adds: The 
day was concluded with peculiar pleasure and satisfaction. 
The building of the church did not, however, progress 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 753 ; VII, 80, 81 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 
459. 

275 



276 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

much faster than had that of St. Philip's. The first vestry 
of St. Michael's was not organized until 1754, and the 
first service was not performed until February, 1761. 
The church is still well known for the beauty of its 
steeple, and is famed for its chime of bells, alike remark- 
able for their sweetness of tone and romantic history. ^ 
The cost of the building was .£53,535 8s. dd. currency, 
estimated at about 132,775.87. Of this X 21,877 was 
subscribed for pews, and £31,656 15s. 9d. ultimately 
granted by the Assembly. ^ 

In the division of the parishes the care of the poor was 
left to St. Philip's, and the church wardens and vestry of 
St. Philip's were authorized to assess and collect the taxes 
for the support of the poor as well upon the inhabitants 
of St. Michael's as upon the inhabitants of the parish of St. 
Philip's. The representation in the Assembly was equally 
divided between the two parishes, each was to send three 

1 These bells were purchased by public subscription. They first reached 
Charlestown in 17G4. When the city was evacuated by the British army, 
in 1782, they were can-ied off by one of the officers. A merchant in Lon- 
don, who had formerly resided in Charlestown, bought them and reshipped 
them to the city. When they arrived the overjoyed citizens hauled them 
with their own hands to the church and replaced them in the steeple, 
from which they again rang out every evening at curfew and upon all 
occasions of rejoicing, tolled upon all of mourning, and summoned to wor- 
ship upon every Sunday until 1862, very near a century. Then, upon the 
siege of the city by the Federal army, they were taken down and sent 
to Columbia for safety. There they were burned by Sherman's army in 
1865. In 1866 the cracked bells and fragments were sent again to Eng- 
land to the successors of the house which had originally cast them, and, 
finding the original order, they were recast of the same amalgam and in 
moulds made with the same trammels. Strange to say, no difference 
whatsoever could be distinguished in their tones from of old. The curfew 
was rung on the bells, save during the war, until September 4, 1882, a 
period of 162 years. 

2 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1886. The Parish 
Church of St. MichaeVs, etc., by George S. Holmes. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 277 

members. It was provided that it should be lawful for 
the inhabitants of either of the two parishes to bury their 
dead in the parish of the other. 

The fourth great cyclone or hurricane, as it was then 
called, that visited the coast of South Carolina since its 
occupation by the English, occurred in 1752. Like those 
of 1700, 1713, and 1728, this too occurred in the month of 
September. Hewatt has left a very vivid account of this 
tempest^ which has been followed by Dr. Ramsay,^ who 
adds that when he wrote, which was in 1809, the few sur- 
viving chroniclers who were witnesses of its devastation 
still frequently took a mournful pleasure in reciting the 
particulars to their listening grandchildren and great- 
grandchildren. During the months of June, July, and 
August of that year the weather had been warmer than 
any of the inhabitants then alive had ever experienced, 
and the mercury, which in the shade often rose above 
90 degrees, was at one time observed to reach the 101st 
degree of the thermometer, and exposed to the sun it rose 
above the 120th. For nearly twent}^ successive days it 
varied between 90 and 101 degrees. It was observed that 
in such cases the wind usually proceeded from tlie north- 
east, directly opposite to the point from which it had long 
blown before. It was also observed that such storms 
seldom happened except in seasons where there had been 
little thunder, when the weather had been long exceed- 
ingly dry and intolerably hot. 

On the night of the 14th of September, the wind being 
at northeast, it began to rise and to blow with increasing 
violence until the next morning. Then the sky became 
wild and cloudy, and a drizzling rain began to fall. 
About nine o'clock the flood came rolling in, with great 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 179-182. 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 317. 



278 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

impetuosity, and in a little time rose ten feet above high- 
water mark at the highest tide. The town was soon over- 
flown, and the streets covered with boats and wrecks of 
houses and ships. Before eleven, all the ships in the 
harbor were driven ashore, and sloops and schooners were 
dashing against the houses of Bay Street, in which great 
quantities of goods were damaged and destroyed. Except 
the Hornet man-of-war, which by cutting away her 
masts rode out the storm, no vessel escaped damage 
or wreck. The terror and consternation which seized the 
inhabitants may be more easily conceived than expressed. 
Finding themselves in the midst of a tempestuous sea, 
and expecting the tide to flow till one o'clock, its usual 
hour, at eleven they were driven to the upper stories of 
their houses, and there remained, despairing of life. At 
this critical time however. Providence, says Hewatt, mer- 
cifully interposed and surprised them with a sudden and 
unexpected deliverance. Soon after eleven the wind 
shifted, in consequence of which the waters fell five feet in 
the space of ten minutes. Had the waters continued 
to rise, and the tide to flow until the usual hour, every 
inhabitant of Charlestown must have perished. Almost 
all the tiled and slated roofs were uncovered, several 
persons were hurt, and some were drowned. The forti- 
fications and wharves were almost entirely demolished. 
The provisions in the fields on the coast were destroyed, 
and numbers of cattle and swine perished in the waters. 
The pesthouse on Sullivan's Island, built of wood, with 
fourteen persons in it, was carried several miles up Cooper 
River, and nine of the fourteen were drowned. ^ 

A flagrant instance of the evil of which Governo)- Glen 

1 See the most interesting particulars of this great storm and its inci- 
dents collected by Dr. Prioleau in a note to Ramsay's History, vol. II, 
320, 326. It is remarkable that this was the last storm to visit the coast 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 279 

had complained in his letter to the Duke of Bedford now 
occurred. Chief Justice Graeme, who had superseded 
Chief Justice Whi taker, had not lived a year after his 
appointment. He died on the 7th of September 1752,i 
whereupon Governor Glen appointed Mr. Charles Pinck- 
ney, who entered upon the duties of the office, which he 
discharged with diligence and ability for a period, of six 
months, when he was superseded by Mr. Peter Leigh, who 
arrived in the province with a commission from the King, 
appointing him in the place of James Graeme, deceased, 
thus ignoring altogether the Governor's appointment of 
Mr. Pinckney. 

The circumstances of Mr. Pinckney's displacement and 
of Mr. Leigh's appointment deserve more than a passing 
notice ; indeed, they were, no doubt, among the earliest in- 
fluences in weaning the colonists from the mother country. 

Charles Pinckney was eminently fitted for the position. 
He was, as we have seen, the son of Thomas Pinckney, 
who had settled in Carolina in 1692. Mr. Pinckney had 
been educated in England, and returning became a suc- 
cessful lawyer and accumulated a large fortune. ^ He had 
been Attorney General in 1733. We have seen him in 
1735 heading the Commons in their oj)position to the 
Councils' amending or altering tax bills. He was Speaker 
of the Commons from 1736 to 1738, and again in 1740. 
He was probably the first native lawyer in South Carolina, 
and was not only an excellent lawyer, but a man of the 
highest character. But these qualifications were of no 
consequence in the estimation of the ministers of the 

of South Carolina for a period of over fifty years ; the next of any 
severity occurring not until 1804. 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, September, 1752. 

2 Life of General Thomas Pinckney, by his grandson, Rev. C. C. 
Pinckney, D.D., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1895, 6. 



280 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Royal government when the place which he filled was 
wanted for some one at home for whom the government 
desired to provide. The case is an illustration of the 
manner in which colonial offices were used as places 
to be given in reward of partisan services, which could 
not be well compensated at home. 

Lord Trentham, son of the Earl of Gower, in 1749, 
during the administration of Pelham, having accepted a 
place at the Board of Admiralty, and thereby vacated his 
seat in the House of Commons for Westminster, offered 
himself a candidate for reelection. Whereupon the 
opposition put up a candidate, and the election was vigor- 
ously contested and long protracted. It happened that 
Mr. Peter Leigh, a gentleman of ancient family, an emi- 
nent counsellor in England, was High Bailiff of West- 
minster, and as such was the manager and returning 
officer of the election. After a long delay Mr. Leigh 
returned Lord Trentham, as elected. There was great 
excitement over the result. The opposition was greatly 
exasperated, and did not hesitate to charge corruption 
and a false return. Measures were taken looking to an 
indictment, but though these were defeated, and though 
a letter written by the agent of the opposition candidate 
commending Mr. Leigh for his impartiality and integrity 
in the conduct of the election was produced, it was 
deemed prudent by the government to disarm the opposi- 
tion by the sacrifice of Mr. Leigh, and he was required to 
vacate the office of High Bailiff of Westminster. ^ But as 
Mr. Leigh was their sacrifice he had otherwise to be pro- 

1 The case was a very famous one, owing to the proceedings taken upon 
the refusal of Mr. Alexander Murray to kneel at the Bar of the House of 
Commons to receive a reprimand for his conduct in the matter, and the 
libel suits which grew out of it. Coxe's Pelham, vol. Ill, 182 ; Parlia- 
mentary Hist., vol. XIV, 570 ; Johnson's Life of Green, vol. I, 2<36. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 281 

vided for by the government he had so well served, and 
so Mr. Pinckney, a native lawyer of Carolina, was made 
to give way to this gentleman who had been at least under 
suspicion of improper conduct in a former office. Mr. 
Leigh was, however, a man of ability, a good lawyer, and 
he filled the position of Chief Justice of the province for 
seven years without giving the least cause of suspicion as 
to his integrity. But the fact remained that Mr. Pinck- 
ney, an able lawyer, and an upright man, a native of the 
province, was made to give way for this stranger. The 
incident was a warning that no native-born Carolinian 
need aspire to the higher positions in the province. 
These were reserved for the placemen around the crown 
at home. 

The old question which had first been agitated by 
Chief Justice Trott, in 1702, under the Proprietary gov- 
ernment, in relation to the nature and character of the 
council as a parliamentary body, and which had been so 
often the subject of controversy since the establishment 
of the Royal government, was now again the subject of 
discussion. Mr. James Crockat, who, since 1749, had 
been the agent "to solicit the affairs of the province in 
Great Britain," as his duties were described in the ordi- 
nance appointing him,^ finding the affairs of the province 
interfering with his own business, had asked to be re- 
lieved, and in the settlement of his accounts claimed 
remuneration for services which the Council disapproved. 
The House of Commons refused to relieve hhn, and 
ordered the Speaker to continue him in the position, 
pledged that body to see him paid as he claimed, and for 
that purpose made provision in the tax bill. The Council 
objected to the items in the bill sent them providing for 
this payment, and as the House of Commons would not 

^ /Statutes of So-. Ca.., vol. Ill, 723. 



282 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

strike them out, rejected the bill. Upon this the House 
of Commons came to the resolution of putting an end to 
the practice of sending the public accounts to the Council 
for their instruction — a custom they now asserted which 
had been introduced through inadvertence, and by those 
who either could not have been acquainted with, or did 
not duly attend to, the constitution of the mother country; 
for such a practice they averred was improper, unparlia- 
mentary, and could not be supported by a single pre- 
cedent from the practice of parliament in Great Britain, 
whose example they said it would always be their highest 
ambition to imitate. 

The same question, viz. as to the right of the Council 
to amend a tax or supply bill sent them by the Commons' 
House, arose also in another way. The great storm of 
1752 had shaken the foundations of Granville's Bastion 
and swept away the fortifications on the Bay. Upon this 
William Girard de Brahm, formerly a captain in the ser- 
vice of Charles VI, — a comrade, probably, of Oglethorpe's, 
— who had been engaged in establishing a settlement at 
Bethany, in Georgia, who was a surveyor and a man of 
scientific attainments, was sent for, and projected a sea 
wall and line of fortifications of considerable magnitude 
for the times. The work was undertaken and under his 
supervision had so far progressed in May, 1756, that the 
sea was dammed out from Granville's Bastion to Brough- 
ton's Battery, that is, the whole lengtli of the present 
East Battery, and was indeed the foundation of the mag- 
nificent sea wall and promenade which constitutes to-day 
one of Charleston's greatest attractions. ^ Three bastions 

1 It must not be supposed, however, that the lines of the present Battery 
are the same as those laid out by De Brahm. His lines ran diagonally 
from Granville's Bastion, as in the text, to Brough ton's Battery, which 
was situated at about the corner of South Battery and Church Street, and 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 283 

were erected on the point of what is now the junc- 
tion of East and South Batteries, capable of mounting 
150 pieces of cannon; the work had then already been 
raised above high-water mark ; from Broughton's Battery 
to Conseillere's Creek it was continued, and three more 
bastions erected. The whole town was to be fortified in 
the same way if the important design was encouraged. 
The Gazette, from which this account is taken,i describes 
the work as having the front toward the rivers and the 
sea faced with facines laid in, covered with mud staked 
together and the outside paved with stones and oyster 
shells. The facines, it was found, answered as well in the 
boggy marsh as upon high ground, and the last year's 
experiment had taught, the Gazette said, that the sea 
rather brings ground to the wall than washes any away. 
To carry on this work and to build a fort in the Cherokee 
country, as Governor Glen had promised, the House of 
Commons sent to the Council a bill to authorize the issue 
of £41,000. This the Council rejected because the bill pro- 
vided no means of retiring the bills thus to be issued. The 
House twice sent back the bill, and twice it was rejected. 

Upon this the Commons' House, on the 29th of April, 
1756, presented a remonstrance to Governor Glen, in which 
they appealed to his Excellency that if he should be of the 
opinion that the Assembly had shown any backwardness 
in the granting of aids to his Majesty's service, as had been 
adequate to the circumstances of the people they repre- 
sented, or that they assumed any power or privilege what- 
ever not belonging to them, or which was not exercised by 
the House of Commons in Great Britain, that his Excel- 
then ran to Conseillere's Creek, which was probably near Gibbes Street. 
See Map, Frontispiece to Mayor Courtenay's Yea7' Book, 1883. 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, May 6, 1756. See also De Brahin's Eeport oj 
the Work; Documents connected with So. Ca. (Weston), 204. 



284 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lency would be pleased to dissolve the present General 
Assembly immediately. On the other hand, they asked 
if his Excellency was of opinion that the members of the 
Council were wrong, his Excellency would be pleased to 
suspend such of them as had been the occasion thereof, 
and appoint others who had the service of his Majesty and 
the security and welfare of the province more at heart. 

Governor Glen, still resenting his exclusion by the Coun- 
cil from their deliberations when sitting, as they claimed, 
as an Upper House, at once took the part of the Commons, 
and in reply to the remonstrance addressed them at great 
length : " Till of late," said he, " I truly thought this the 
happiest province in America, for tho' we heard of fierce 
disputes in other goverimients, yet all was harmony here, 
and peace seemed to have taken up her residence and 
become an inhabitant of South Carolina. But alas! she 
appears now to have taken her flight. . . . You appeal 
to me, if I think you in the wrong I may dissolve the 
present General Assembly. Had I thought you in the 
wrong, gentlemen, I would have told you so long ago — 
it would have been my duty to have spoken to you in the 
constitutional language of adjournment, prorogation, and 
dissolution. But can a governor blame behavior that is 
parliamentary? Did any assembly in the country grant 
such ample supplies to his Majesty as you have cheerfully 
given ? Did ever any assembly in this country give such 
proofs of patience, temper, and moderation as this assem- 
bly ? And as other things redound greatly to your honor, 
it were unjust in a governor to refuse you this public tes- 
timony of applause that you now Avell deserve. I would 
willingly stop here ; but justice requires me to go further, 
and to say that I am of opinion that the Council has done 
wrong in not proceeding with the tax bill. This seems 
to be no juncture for disputing questions about rights 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 285 

and privileges. Such points ought not now to be pressed 
when the dehiys and difficulties that we occasion by mov- 
ing in such matters must draw us into imminent danger 
and may prove fatal to us." 

His Excellency was not, however, prepared to break 
entirely with the Council, so he changed somewhat his tone 
in regard to that body. Upon the whole he could wish, 
he said, that the tax bill more nearly resembled the acts 
granting supplies in the mother country. He thought the 
Commons might have sent the accounts to the Council 
upon which the schedules to his tax bill were founded. 
On the other hand, he thought the Council might have 
acted upon the tax bill without having the accounts, as 
they had other and, in his opinion, better methods of 
obtaining the information necessary for their action. To 
the request of the Commons that he would suspend the 
members of Council who were obstructing business, the 
Governor declares that as yet he cannot find any sufficient 
cause for doing so. '• I think it a duty incumbent upon 
me in the station I have the honor to be in," he says, " to 
assert the Council's right of rejecting bills, and to assure 
you that when it appears that any of the members wan- 
tonly exercise that right, I will, with the consent of the 
rest, suspend them ; but upon looking into the journals, 
I cannot find sufficient grounds for fixing such a charge. 
Perhaps a little more time may give more light." 

In the Crazette of May 13 there appears a very interest- 
ing review of the history of the parliamentary organization 
of the colony, and a clear and able statement of the views 
of those who questioned the position of the Council as an 
Upper House. 1 

^ The paper appears over the sig^iatiire of T s W 1. Probably 

Thomas Wright, son of Chief Justice Robert Wright, who had been an 
officer in the invasion of Florida under Oglethorpe. 



286 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The writer maintains that under the Proprietors there 
were but two estates — the Lords Proprietors and the 
people. The Lords Proprietors had a Governor who 
represented the Palatine, and the Lords had each his 
deputy who consented to measures, each for his constit- 
uent or principal. The Governor with these deputies 
sat in council and each gave his consent to all laws he 
approved. The scheme of the Lords Proprietors to found 
a nobility to constitute an Upper House failed, so that 
there remained but the two estates — the Lords Proprie- 
tors and the people. This constitution he argued was in 
no wise altered when his Majesty was invested with the 
estate of the Proprietors. Since then there was no 
nobility : the government of the province could not in 
that respect be like to that of England — one estate or 
part of the British constitution was wanting. This being 
so the government came as near to the practice of Great 
Britain as possible by passing laws in the Assembly, and 
confirming or assenting to them by the Governor. 

The parliament of England was composed of King, 
Lords, and Commons, the two Houses agreeing and unit- 
ing in a proper balance of power between the King and the 
people. But, argued the writer, if his Majesty's authority 
is represented by the Governor, which constitutes one 
estate of our legislature, and his Majesty further appoints 
a council to preside in the nature of an Upper House or 
House of Peers, the members of which are appointed by 
him durante heme plaeito regis, such an appointment must 
necessarily destroy the balance, and be contrary to the 
usage of the mother country. " I dare venture to affirm," 
continued the writer, "that no instructions to his Majesty's 
various Governors ever called the Council an Upper House, 
nor can the Council produce any instructions to any Gov- 
ernor where any words can imply tliem to be a House of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 287 

Peers." A challenge which, as we shall see, the Council 
j^retty fairly met. 

The writer pointed out the anomaly of the Council sit- 
ting as an Upper House, and agreeing to a measure, which 
the Governor afterward, though presumed to be acting 
under the advice of his Council as a cabinet, refused to 
assent to, and pointed among others to such a case which 
had just occurred, in which a bill was passed by the 
assembly for granting his Majesty £40,000 to be sent to 
Virginia to assist in defraying his Majesty's legal rights 
there, and approved by the Council sitting as an Upper 
House, and yet lost by the refusal of the Governor to 
assent to it. 

The writer ridiculed the absurdity disclosed by mes- 
sages sent down by the Council as an Upper House, and 
concluding with the attestation of a Clerk of Council. He 
argued with much force that the Lords in England had no 
vote for parliament men ; they were independent, and 
could not be displaced at the pleasure of a minister; the 
Peers were hereditary counsellors of the King and king- 
dom. The councillors in Carolina were dependent and 
held their office at the pleasure of the King ; they voted 
for members of Assembly. Could they represent them- 
selves and be represented ? The members of the Council 
could be suspended by the Governor ; could a peer of 
England be suspended by the King? 

With great ability the writer points out the true nature 
of the Royal instructions to Governors and their constitu- 
tional limitations. Instructions from his Majesty to the 
Governor or the Council, he observes, are binding on 
them, because if they are disregarded by either, the Gov- 
ernor or councillor might immediately be superseded. 
But if instruction should be laws and rules to the people 
of the province, there would be no need of assemblies, and 



288 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

all their laws and taxes might be made and levied by 
instructions. " 'Tis certain," he adds, " many instructions 
to the Governors of colonies have never been carried into 
execution, the people not thinking it was proper to pass 
laws for such purpose." 

The Council appointed a committee consisting of the 
Honorable John Cleland, William Bull, William Wragg, 
George Saxby, James Michie, and Othneal Beale to prepare 
a reply on the part of that body to the remonstrance of 
the Commons and the Governor's reply. This the com- 
mittee did, and their reply was adopted and ordered to be 
published in the Gazette. This vindication of the Council, 
as it was termed, treated the subject in a more practical 
and less theoretical manner than did the remonstrance 
and the paper published in the Crazette, from which we 
have quoted. 

The general charge, said the vindication, is that the 
public credit is sunk to so low an ebb that the public 
service cannot be carried on with necessary vigor and 
dispatch, since the passing of a tax bill is become so 
precarious and uncertain. The particular dangers arising 
from this condition are (1) that the Governor will be 
unable to fulfil his engagement with the Cherokee 
Indians ; and (2) that the money provided last year for 
erecting the fortification to defend the metropolis being 
nearly expended, a stop must be put to tliat necessary 
work. The Council go elaborately into the history of the 
controversy, claiming they had done all they could to 
facilitate the building of the fort for protection against 
the Indians, and charge that in their efforts they had not 
been supported by the Governor. They ridicule the 
Governor's pathetic figures of the wounded, bleeding, and 
expiring public credit, especially in view of the fact they 
state that in less than two days a few persons in Charles- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 289 

town alone had raised by subscription near ,£40,000 to 
carry on the building of the fort in the Cherokee country, 
not to be given but lent in the general faith of the public. 
If the public credit had fallen as low as the Governor 
represented, how was it that so large a sum could so 
easily be raised upon it? 

The Council concerned themselves little with the 
question as to their style. It is immaterial, they said, 
whether tlie persons exercising the second branch of the 
legislature are called Deputies, Council, House, or Board, 
as the Assembly affect to call them. The House of Peers 
are known by various names, — House of Lords, House of 
Peers, and Upper House of Parliament. The name makes 
no difference in the substance and essence of the thing 
and the powers belonging to it. Leaving this without 
further discussion, they turn upon the Assembly and 
question its own organization. 

It would be comparing great things with small, they 
said, to mention the province in comparison with the 
mother country. This province and its legislation are 
entirely subordinate and dependent. Its powers are 
derivative and not original, and it can no more prevent 
its being subject to the control of the Crown than it can 
make laws to bind the kingdom of Great Britain. The 
wliole power springs from the Crown. The Assembly's 
power as a branch of it must undoubtedly be derived 
from the same source, for they claim their privileges in 
that respect from the charter, and that was given by the 
Crown. Without this power, which is of the kind with 
those given to corporations for making by-laws, they could 
not exercise any legislation at all. 

But even in England, while it was true that the Com- 
mons constantly asserted the right in question in regard 
to money bills, the Lords had never allowed that right, 

VOL. II — u 



290 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

as their journals will amply testify. The right then must 
be derived from (1) length of practice, or (2) from some 
fresh grant of power. There was no such grant. Was 
there any such length of practice? From the beginning 
of the government in this province the accounts relating 
to expenses received for the public service have always 
undergone examinations of both Council and Assembly. 
The Council had been challenged to show an instance in 
which that body had been mentioned in any instruction 
to a Governor in words that would imply them to be 
a House of Peers. They certainly could not do so if 
regard was had to the qualifications of the members of the 
Council; but they could very effectually do so if regard 
was had to the very powers of the body now in dispute. 
And this the vindication of the Council proceeds to point 
out. It calls attention to the eleventh section of the 
Election act passed under Governor Nicholson's admin- 
istration, which limits the powers and privileges of the 
members of the Commons' House of Assembly to such as 
are according to his Majesty's thirty-fifth instruction. ^ 
And this instruction which they quote distinctly recog- 
nizes the Council as a House of Assembly, and especially 
authorizes it as such to alter and amend money bills. ^ 
This instruction recites as the occasion of its requirement 
that members of several assemblies in the plantations had 
of late years assumed to themselves privileges no ways 
belonging to them, among which were the taking "■ upon 
themselves the sole framing of money bills, refusing to 
allow the Council to alter or amend the same, which was 
contrary to his Majesty's prerogative," and was therefore 
forbidden. The vindication asserts that this privilege 
had been exercised in this province without question until 
1735, at which time the first precedent is found of the 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 138. ^ j^^ne, chap. II, 20. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 291 

Commons claiming a sole right of framing, altering, and 
amending bills. The claim was again made in 1739 and 
as peremptorily denied, but as the province was on the 
verge of a war with the Spaniards in Florida, and was 
preparing for the expedition under Oglethorpe, it was 
agreed that the Council might suggest amendments which 
would be formally offered by the Commons. 

It is interesting to observe that in this discussion, ably 
conducted as it was, nothing is suggested as to the great 
parliamentary advantage in itself of having two houses 
or bodies sitting and acting separately, and so constituted 
that the one should represent the conservative sentiment 
of the community; while the other would be under the 
influence of the popular impulse of the day, and thus con- 
stitute a check ; the one upon the other, — the popular 
branch infusing life and vigor into legislation, while the 
conservative body restrains reckless legislation. Nothing 
was suggested as to the danger of all singular numerous 
assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent 
passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intem- 
perate and pernicious actions, and the consequent necessity 
for a second bianch of the legislature, the length of tenure 
of which should render it less amenable to temporary in- 
fluences.^ These theoretical questions were not considered. 
The question discussed was this : Accepting the maxim 
that the government must be as near as possible to that 
of Great Britain, was the Council in its nature such a 
body as the House of Lords in England? Could any- 
thing but an hereditary, independent class constitute such 
a body ? It was not considered whether the British con- 
stitution was or was not sufficiently imitated by having 
the Council, however constituted, to act as a separate body 
from the House of Commons, considering anew, debating 
1 The Federalist, 286. 



292 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and passing upon each measure, uninfluenced by the 
action of the Commons, or whether such a separation was 
or was not of advantage. The discussion was limited 
almost entirely to the personal constitution of the Coun- 
cil. Could an Upper House consist of anything but of a 
privileged class — a nobility ? There perhaps lurked in 
the opposition to the claim of an Upper House the fear 
of thereby constituting, in the province, something like 
to a privileged class — a nobility — which, after over- 
throwing the Landgraves and Caciques, the people were 
by no means disposed to do. 

During this discussion the Grazette of April 3, 1755, 
announced the death of the first Lieutenant Governor, 
William Bull. He was born in the province in 1683, and 
died on the 21st of March, 1755, at Sheldon, his country 
seat, in Prince William's Parish, and was interred in the 
yard to the church, which, the Ciazette observes, was said 
to be the most elegant and complete country church 
in America,^ and which he was the principal instrument 
in building. When the news reached the town on the 
22d, the forts and all the vessels in the harbor hoisted 
their colors in mourning, and minute guns were fired 
from the bastions and the vessels in the harbor. Gov- 
ernor Glen summoned the Council, and addressed them in 



1 " Sheldon Church, Prince William's Parish. It has been the fate of 
this venerable church to pass through two revolutions, and to experience 
the same fortune in each. It was burnt by the British in 1780, on their 
march from Savannah to Charleston, and it was burnt again by the United 
States army on their march from Savannah to Charleston in 1865. It had 
previously been stripped of pews and furniture by the negroes. All that 
was combustible was consumed except the roof, which was above the 
reach of fire, and its massive walls survive the last as they did the former 
conflagration." — Beport of Committee on the Destriirtion of Vhurrhes in 
the Diocese of So. Ca. during the Late War. Prot. Episcopal Convention, 
May, 1868. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 293 

a very impressive manner. After recalling his long and 
varied services to the province in which he was born, in 
the field, and in the council, and as Chief Magistrate he 
pays this graceful tribute to his character : — 

"In whatever light to be viewed, he will appear to advantage. 
But the many excellent laws that he passed speak his praises better 
than I am able. He was careful in passing those laws ; he was vigi- 
lant in executing them ; he procui'ed obedience to them, not so much 
by the weight of his powers, as by the authority of his own practice ; 
for no man was more obedient to the laws than himself. You all have 
reason to lament the loss of him, but I, most of all, for I was frequently 
benefited by following his advice, more frequently by imitating his 
example, and where I could not equal, I endeavored to copy after 
him. I shall bequeath this advice to my successor : Go, and do thou 
likewise." 



CHAPTER XVI 

1753-55 

Beyond the part of the province which had thus far been 
settled by the English, the Huguenots, the Irish, Welch, 
and Germans; beyond the points on the rivers to which 
they had pushed their canoes and carried their peria- 
guers; and beyond the sand hills which stretch in a belt, 
from twenty to forty miles from the Savannah River to 
the upper part of the Pee Dee, and thence into North 
Carolina, and which in some of the first maps is marked 
Deserta Arenosa, — the Great Desert,^ — where we first 
come to the falls of the great rivers, lies the territory 
which used to be designated as the Up Country, or as Mr. 
Logan in his admirable work calls it Upper South Caro- 
lina, the magnificent domain now teeming with popula- 
tion and wealth, excelling in agriculture, and abounding 
in manufactures, which constitutes the present counties 
of Abbeville, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenville, Oconee, 
Pickens, Newberry, Laurens, Union, Spartanburg, Fair- 
field, Chester, Lancaster, York, Kershaw, and Richland. 

The landscape of this country, when first visited by the 
English, was neither wholly rugged with mountains nor 
monotonously tame with unbroken plains, but a series of 
mingled elevated ranges, undulating hills, and flowing 
vales, forming a glorious analogue of the true Scotch- 
Irishman's heart and nature. Interspersed with forests 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1886, 248. 
294 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 295 

and prairies and vast brakes of cane, — the latter often 
stretching in unbroken lines of evergreen for hundreds of 
miles from the alluvial country on the coast to the interior 
sources of streams, says Logan, — it was not surpassed in 
picturesque beauty and grandeur by the best portions of 
Texas; and its virgin soil was not inferior to that of the 
same boasted state. When the hunters and cow drivers 
first penetrated this region there were considerable por- 
tions of it as destitute of trees and as luxuriant in grass 
and flower as any prairie of modern times. Through 
this country the Catawbas and the Cherokees roamed. It 
abounded in wild horses, buffaloes, bears, deer, elk, 
panthers, and other wild animals. 

A country, says the same author, then abounding in 
magnificent woods and prairies and so rich in its produc- 
tion of animal life, must have offered, as do similar re- 
gions of the West at the present day, rare attractions to 
the hunter and stock-raiser; and if all information on the 
subject had been wholly lost, it would not be difficult to 
conjecture what sort of men first ventured to penetrate 
its unexplored wilds. 

Three remarkable classes of men preceded by several 
years the regular settlers of northwestern Carolina; these 
were the hunters, cow drivers, and Indian traders. The 
hunter, though no pioneer, — for he appropriated no lands, 
levelled no forests, and cultivated but little soil, — yet 
served by his adventurous life many valuable purposes; 
he conciliated the jealous savages, impressed them, as 
Indians were easily impressed, by his romantic courage 
and unrivalled skill in the use of the rifle, with sentiments 
of respect for the character and prowess of white men, and 
brought back from his wanderings to the border settle- 
ments glowing accounts of Elysian fields he had seen in 
the wilderness, and thus opened the way to the most eli- 



296 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

gible sections for succeeding groups of advancing settlers. 
Thus Logan relates that Patrick and William Calhoun, 
the pioneers of western Abbeville, were induced to visit 
the Long Canes by descriptions of the fertility and love- 
liness of the country there which they had obtained from 
a band of hunters at the Waxhaws.^ 

Not far from the log hut of the hunter stood that of the 
cow driver — a character likewise worthy of note. Besides 
his association with the Indians and these gloomy wilds, 
there was little romance about him ; yet his life was one 
of self-reliance, hardship, and active vigilance, and in it 
were trained for eminent usefulness many of the back- 
woods soldiers of the Revolution. Logan mentions Gen- 
eral Andrew Williamson of White Hall as one that had 
been a cow driver in his youth on the Cane Pastures, and 
that in 1740 Thomas Nightingale, the maternal ancestor 
of the Johnsons of Charlestown, had established a cow pen 
six miles from the present site of Winnsboro. 

A cow pen was quite an important institution. It was 
usually officered with a superintendent and a corps of 
sub-agents — all active men, experienced woodsmen, and 
unfailing shots at long or short sight with the rifle. For 
these a hamlet of cabins was erected beside the large en- 
closures for the stock, all of which, with a considerable 
plot of cleared land in the vicinity for the cultivation of 
corn, made quite an opening in the woods ; and when 
all were at home, and the cattle in the pens, presented a 
very noisy, civilized scene in the midst of the savage 
wilderness. These rude establishments became after- 
ward, wherever they were found, the centres of settle- 
ments, founded by the cultivators of the soil, who followed 
just behind the cow drivers in their enterprising search 
for unappropriated productive lands. These embryo set- 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 150. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 297 

tlements never failed to afford abundant possessions, some 
society, and sure protection from the Indians and from 
the no less terrible white marauders who now began to 
infest the border.^ 

But the Indian trader, says Logan, was a far more inter- 
esting character than either the hunter or the cow driver. 
Devoted as he was to the arts and wrangle of gain, he 
nevertheless possessed not only a fearless intrepidity, but 
a hiofh order of intellig-ence, and in more than one instance 
education and learning. ^ He advanced without ceremony 
into the heart of Indian settlements, and for the sake of 
pushing his lucrative business was content to live, in 
many instances, a long lifetime deprived of the comforts 
and amenities of civilized society. Anthony Park, one of 
the first settlers of the back country, and who lived to a 
very advanced age in Newberry, travelled in 1758 some 
hundred miles among the Indians to the west of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains. He found several white men, chiefly 
Scotch or Irish, who said they had lived among the Indians 
as traders twenty years, a few from forty to fifty, and one 
sixty years. One of these said he had upward of seventy 

i Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 151-153. 

2 As an illustration of this, see the able and learned treatise by James 
Adair, Esq., a tr<ader with the Indians and resident in their country 
for forty years, entitled. The History of the American Indians, ParticAi- 
larly those Nations adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, 
Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia, containing an Account 
of their Origin, Language, Manners, Beligious and Civil Customs, Laws, 
Form of Government, Punishments, Conduct in War and Domestic Life, 
their Habits, Diet, Agricultxire, Manufactures, Diseases and Method of 
Cure, and Other Particulars sxifficient to render it a Complete Lidian 
System, with Observations on Former Historians, the Conduct of Our 
Colony (So. Ca.), Governors, Superintendents, Missionaries, etc., London, 
MDCCLXXV. In this work the author maintains with observations and 
arguments that the American Indians were descended from the Jews. 
Adair was not only well versed in the Indian dialect, but was also learned 
in the Hebrew and Latin languages. 



298 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

children and grandchildren in the Nation. If these 
accounts be correct, says Logan, the oldest of these traders 
must have taken up his abode among the savages four 
hundred miles to the west of Charlestown before the close 
of the seventeenth century, when the white population of 
Carolina scarcely extended twenty miles from the sea- 
coast.^ In 1690, several years before the English settlers 
on the Ashley knew that such a people as the Cherokees 
existed, one Daugherty, a trader from Virginia, ventured 
to take up his residence among them for the purpose of 
traffic.^ 

The Indian trade, until 1716, was conducted solely 
under the auspices of individual enterprise. The system 
of exchange was exceedingly advantageous to the English 
adventurer; for a few trinkets, looking-glasses, pieces of 
colored cloth, hatchets, and guns of small value, he could 
procure, on the Savannah and Catawba, peltries which in 
Charlestown would command many times their original 
cost. But in that year, partly for the sake of its enor- 
mous profits, and partly with the design of having better 
control of the Indians in view of the public safety, the 
Proprietary government assumed the direction of all its 
affairs, and conducted it thereafter as a great public 
monopoly. 

Next to the traders, says Logan, the most interesting 
characters employed in the Indian traffic were the pack- 
horsemen. These frequently consisted in part of boys, 
under the direction of an expeiienced voj/ageur^ and their 
life was one of exposure, hardship, and not unfrequently 
of thrilling adventures. In peace and in war, in every 
vicissitude of weather, they were found upon the path. 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 1G7, 168 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. 
Ca., vol. I, 209. 

2 Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee ; Logan, Ibid. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 299 

When menaced, it was usual for several caravans to unite 
for mutual protection; yet they were not unfrequently 
attacked, the drivers and traders murdered or routed, and 
their horses and goods seized by the marauders. ^ 

Peter St. Julien resided near Dorchester, and from his 
residence the trails to the Congaree and ChickasaAV 
diverged. His place was a great camping ground, and 
the Board of Indian Trade deposited corn there for the 
use of the caravans. A caravan on the latter route leav- 
ing Charlestown stopped hrst at St. Julien's, thence it pro- 
ceeded to Wasmasaw, then to the Ponds and to Edisto, 
and thence to Fort Moore, or Savannah Town — a short 
distance below the present site of Hamburg, opposite 
Augusta, Georgia. This much of the old Creek and 
Chickasaw's trail formed the larger part of the first path 
of commercial communication opened between Charlestown 
and the Cherokees. Soon after the erection of a factory 
at Savannah Town, under the protection of Fort Moore, 
the Indians themselves cut a trail from their towns down 
the east bank of the Savannah to that place, of sufficient 
width and straightness for the conveyance of peltries and 
goods on the backs of "burdeners." As the traffic increased 
it gradually enlarged, and by the time the trading houses 
and forts were erected at Augusta, in 1736, under the 
auspices of Oglethorpe, it had become a thoroughfare for 
caravans of packhorses.^ A caravan taking the Congaree 
trail would likewise make its first camping ground at St. 
Julien's. From that point it would follow up the east 
bank of Four Hole Creek toward the nearest point of the 
Santee, thence across Amelia township, passing the site 
of Orangeburg, to the Congaree and up that river to 
the forts at the Fall, that is, Granby, near Columbia. 
Beyond these it would follow the southern bank of the 

' Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 311. 2 /^^y^.^ 315-317. 



300 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Saluda to the spot where in after years the fort at Ninety- 
six was built and where it fell into a path that, Logan 
says, was no doubt even then known as the great Keowee 
trail. 1 

Fort Moore and the Congarees were the only garrisoned 
posts erected on the border by the government, at this 
early period, for the protection of the Indian trade, and 
the first horse-paths from Charlestown no doubt touched 
at these points in their course. In process of time the 
peltry tralBc was greatly increased, and the Cherokees soon 
grew so dependent upon the English for all the neces- 
saries of life that their enlarged commerce required if 
not a wider, a more direct, thoroughfare than either the 
Chickasaw or Congaree paths. It was then that packhorse 
trains began to frequent the Keowee trail throughout its 
whole extent; and it became a great central highway of 
communication between Charlestown and the interior and 
the mountain valleys of the Cherokee Nation. ^ 

Logan calls attention to the fact that nearly the entire 
railway system which had been constructed at the time he 
wrote, 1859, followed almost precisely on the routes of the 
old Indian peltry trails of her infant commerce. The 
South Carolina railway between Charlestown and Augusta 
passing over the line of the Chickasaw and Creek paths. 
The Greenville and Columbia along that of the Cherokees, 
and the Columbia and Charlotte, on the ridge between the 
Broad and Catawba rivers, on the old path that led from 
the Catawbas to the Congarees. 

But this magnificent domain into which the English 
hunters, cow drivers, and Indian traders were then press- 
ing was not admitted without question to belong to Great 
Britain. The colony of Georgia was now interposed 
between the Carolinians and the Spaniards in Florida; 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 320. 2 j^ii^^ 321. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 301 

but her western frontier was still exposed to the claims of 
France. Firmly established in Canada and Louisiana, 
France was rapidly connecting these extreme points by 
a chain of military posts, stretching through the entire 
length of the Mississippi Valley, and, having formed 
close commercial alliance with several of the most power- 
ful tribes of the continent, her triumph was apparently, 
beyond peradventure, not far distant. Her design was to 
secure the possession of the great valley, and having cir- 
cumscribed the English colonists within their narrow belt 
along the Atlantic, when everything was ready for the 
blow, to fall upon them, with the hordes of their savage 
confederates, and exterminate or drive them from the soil. 
In an old map, constructed previous to 1741, by M. de 
L'Isle, geographer to the French King, a definite line is 
traced, marking the eastern limit of France's assumed 
domains on the American continent. ^ It set out from a 
point near Charlestown, ran northeastward to Cooper 
River, — which it crossed some sixty miles from the ocean, 
— passed the Santee one hundred miles from its mouth, 
turned northwestward along the eastern bank of that 
stream till it reached the Catawba, pursued this tributary 
into the Alleghany Mountains, followed that course 
around the head waters of the Potomac to the Susque- 
hanna, — crossing it at a point some sixty-five miles from 
the head of the Chesapeake Bay, — ran thence up the east- 
ern bank to the North Branch, and along that stream to 
the Mohawk, — which it crossed some fifty miles above its 
junctiort with the Hudson, — thence to a point near the 
lower extremity of Lake Champlain, and along the chan- 
nel of that water to the mouth of the Sorrelle, by which it 
finally passed to the River St. Lawrence. The sandy strip 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Lostan), 833. The map accompanying 
Cox's Carolina, mentioned by Logan, is still in the Charleston Library. 



302 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of country lying between this imaginary defiant line of 
frontier and the ocean was all that was allowed England 
for her portion of the continent. Through all the immense 
territory between this strip and the Mississippi, English 
and French emissaries were alike alternately stirring up 
the Indians against each other. 

In the year 1752 South Carolina was nearly involved in 
an Indian war, but happily escaped. The Creeks having 
quarrelled with the Cherokees, killed a party of the latter 
near the gates of Charlestown, and among other outrages 
they had scalped a British trader. Upon Governor Glen's 
demand for satisfaction, however, the Indians, by their ora- 
tor, Malatchee, at a public congress held for that purpose, 
apologized for their conduct; and peace was preserved.^ 

Though not actually declared until 1756, the Seven 
Years' War between England and France really began in 
America as early as 1754. The French settlers in Canada 
and those on the Mississippi, even before that, as we have 
said, were assiduous in forming a connecting chain in 
rear of the British colonies on the Atlantic, and for this 
purpose were exerting every influence with the Indians. 
The British were pursuing a similar policy in resistance, 
but less extensive and with less success. Hostilities had 
begun in the northern provinces. 

It happened that about this time Lieutenant Governor 
Dinwiddle of Virginia, probably not realizing the vital 
importance of his relations to the Indians to South 
Carolina, but desirous of securing to his commonwealth a 
larger share of their trade, had taken steps to entice the 
four great soutliern tribes from their alliance with this 
province, and their dependence upon her for the neces- 
saries of life. Governor Glen was thoroughly aroused. 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 173, 178; Kamsay's Hist, of So. 
Ca., vol. II, 166. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 303 

No one, says Logan, better knew than he the political 
importance of the Cherokee and Catawba trade to Carolina 
or better understood the Indian character. He innnedi- 
ately addressed a letter to the Governor of Virginia, 
couched in terms of strong remonstrance.^ 

"South Carolina," he wrote, "is a weak frontier colony, 
and in case of an invasion by the French would be their 
first object of attack. We have not much to fear, how- 
ever, while we retain the affection of the Indians around 
us ; but should we forfeit that by any mismanagement on 
our part, or by the superior address of the French, we are 
in a miserable situation. The Cherokees alone have sev- 
eral thousand gunmen well acquainted with every inch of 
this province — their country is the key to Carolina. We 
have been greatly alarmed by the behavior of the Vir- 
ginians in regard to the Cherokees. Few or no Indians 
are in treaty with Virginia. By long experience we have 
become thoroughly acquainted with their nature and 
inclinations, and have been so successful in managing 
them as to keep them steady to the British interest, not- 
withstanding the vigorous and persevering efforts of 
France to seduce them from us. We can see no good or 
wise policy in endeavoring to draw away these Indians 
from one of his Majesty's provinces to another. We have 
been enabled to fix the affections of the four great nations 
around us. (The Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscogees, and 
Chickasaws.) Let facts speak: they come when we send 
for them, and go when we bid them depart; they do 
whatever we desire them. They now perfectly under- 
stand the injustice of jjunishing the innocent for the 
guilty, and the necessity of punishing the latter in con- 
formity to the treaties between them and us. And when, 

^ Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 420, quoting from Indian Books, 
Secretary of State's office, Columbia, S.C. 



804 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

under any circumstances, a white man is killed in their 
country, the offender is sure to die, though the greatest of 
the nation. 

" When a people unacquainted with the nature of crimes 
and punishments are brought to deal with offenders on 
principles that guide, under similar circumstances, the 
most enlightened nations, may we not safely boast of hav- 
ing progressed a great way in the education of savages ? 
All this we do aver to be truthful. What benefit, there- 
fore, do you hope to gain for the common cause by sending 
so many pressing invitations to those nations, or the five 
of New York to come to Virginia? I will answer for 
their good behavior with my life if your province will let 
them alone. In my absence the Council of this colony 
wrote praying you not to intermeddle with our Indians. 
I have also requested the same, yet you have sent mes- 
sages lately to the Catawbas and Chickasaws inviting 
them to come and receive the presents sent over by the 
King." 

The tact and energy of Governor Glen, says Logan, 
arrested at length the danger from this source. It was an 
emergency that afforded him an opportunity of displaying 
in no insignificant manner his ability and prudence as a 
guardian of the public weal.^ There were not wanting 
those, however, who could find in his ability and apparent 
zeal for the best interest of the colony, only a cloak for 
personal schemes and private motives, who charged that 
he was much more jealous of freeing the trade from the 
damaging intrusion of the Virginian traffickers than in 
repelling the far more dangerous encroachments of the 
French. 2 Adair, a sufficiently intelligent, though not 
altogether disinterested, contemporary, does not hesitate 
to charge him with the deliberate sacrifice of the public 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 423. » ma.^ 426, 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 305 

interest to the promotion of his private aggrandizement; 
and it must be confessed, observes Logan, that an impar- 
tial review of all the facts in the case, drawn from various 
and most reliable sources, does not restore his memory to 
the unqualified admiration of posterity.^ 

A fierce war was now waging between the Creeks and 
the Cherokees, which, in Adair's opinion, it was the true 
policy of the South Carolina government to ferment and 
to assist the Creeks, who had just cause of complaints for 
injuries done by the Cherokees. But Governor Glen took 
another course: he summoned the Cherokee chiefs to 
meet him in conference at Charlestown, not for the pur- 
pose of giving them the gentlest rebuke for the outrages 
they were obviously abetting upon the defenceless settle- 
ments of the upper country, nor to require them to make 
reparation for their recent insult to the Creeks, but solely 
to persuade them to bury the hatchet and make peace with 
the Creeks.^ 

The conference was opened in the Council Chamber, 
July 4, 1753, Governor Glen presiding. Attakullakulla 
was the chief Indian spokesman on this occasion. This 
chief when young had gone with the Cherokee embassy 
to England. He was better known to the whites by 
his surname of Little Carpenter. His Indian name sig- 
nifies the most excellent woodcutter. He was exceed- 
ingly small in his person, but eloquent, sagacious, and 
brave. From this time he began to rise in importance, 
both with his own people and the English. He had been 
disaffected, had even been under suspicion of French 
entanglement, and had been one of those who had gone 
to Virginia to seek there a supply of goods to render his 

^ Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 451 ; Hist, of the Am. Indians 
(Adair), 224, 239, 242 et seq. 

2 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 459. 

VOL, II X 



306 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

people independent of the Governor of South Carolina. 
His love for the English was not strong enough to have 
restrained him from allying himself with the French had 
he been sure of their power ; but his fear of the great King, 
whom he had seen in England, had not wholly subsided, 
and the French were in no condition to supply all the 
wants of his people.^ A long "talk" was had, pipes were 
smoked, and the Cherokees departed, returning by the 
path that led to the Congarees and thence to Saluda Old 
Town, but not without committing robberies on the way. 

When the Cherokees were gone the chiefs of the Creeks 
appeared, under a similar summons from the Governor, 
and had their talk with his Excellency in the same 
chamber. The result was a firm peace concluded between 
the Creeks and the Cherokees, says Logan, at the very 
flood-tide of an opportunity that should have been seized by 
the authorities in Carolina for punishing the insufferable 
insolence and treachery of the Cherokees. We shall pres- 
ently see that when the crisis came. Creeks and Cherokees 
joined and carried fire and the scalping knife into the 
infant settlements of northwest Carolina and upper 
Georgia. 

The traders, settlers, and even many of the Indians had 
long desired, and endeavored to obtain, well-garrisoned 
forts on the frontier; as early as 1734, shortly after the re- 
turn of the Cherokee embassy from London, application had 
been made to the government in England for assistance 
in the matter. Failing in obtaining such assistance the 
Council, in 1753, determined that one fort at least should 
be built, and advised the Governor to give directions for 
its construction at a cost not to exceed .£3000; that the 
site selected should be as close as possible to the town of 
Keowee, and that the land on which it should be built 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 487, 488. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 307 

should be purchased from the Indians. In obedience to 
this advice of the Council, Governor Glen, in the fall of 
that year, visited the country of the lower Cherokees and 
purchased a tract of land, whereon the long-promised fort 
was erected at Keowee.^ 

He watt describes this purchase as of a territory of 
large extent.^ The territory of the counties of Abbe- 
ville, Edgefield, Laurens, Union, Spartanburg, Newberry, 
Chester, Fairfield, and Richland^ is usually supposed to 
have been covered by its grant. But this Logan points out 
to be a mistake. The actual grant was only of this indefi- 
nite description, "not only the spot on which a fort is at 
present building near Keowee, and all the lands betwixt 
that and a place called Long Canes of the width of said 
fort; but also all the lands, as well cornfields as pasture- 
grounds, hills, woods, and waters, all the right and title 
the Cherokee Nation can lay claim to in the said lands 
forever."^ Not a foot of land south of the North Branch 
of Long Cane, to wit, Little River, was ceded to the 
King of Great Britain. What was really intended to be 
covered beside the immediate site of the fort, and the sur- 
rounding woods, pastures, and waters necessary to the 
garrison, was a strip of land the width of the fort, which ex- 
tended thence as far southward as a place called the Long 
Canes — a sort of road or way of access to the future garri- 
son. There can be no doubt, however, that from this time 

1 Hewatt and all after him who have made mention of this event, until 
Logan wrote, have stated that the visit of Governor Glen was made in 
1755, but Logan gives 1753 as the true date, upon the authority of the 
Indian Books in Columbia, in the Secretary of State's office. Hist, of 
Upper So. Ca. , 494 and note. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. (Hewatt), vol. II, 204. 

' Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 499. The counties here mentioned 
are intended to include the territory they contained before the subdi- 
visions under the constitution of 1 895. 

* Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 496. 



308 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the English began to settle the country included in the 
limits of the counties mentioned, and that their settle- 
ment began rapidly to extend toward the mountains.^ 
Circumstances extraneous to the colony of South Carolina 
added greatly to this movement, and peopled this territory 
with a class different from any that had yet come into the 
province. 

Fort Prince George, as the new fort was called, was 
built at a short distance from the town of Keowee, about 
one hundred and seventy miles from Fort Moore on the 
Savannah, and was designed to be a much more formid- 
able structure than the ordinary stockade enclosures of 
the pioneers. It was in the form of a square six feet in 
height, on which stakes were fixed, a ditch and natural 
glacis strengthened two sides, and strong bastions, the an- 
gles upon which were mounted sixteen small cannon, four 
on each bastion. Its barracks were sufficient for a hundred 
men, but it was badly constructed, and in three years was 
in an almost ruinous condition : the palisades had tumbled 
from the ramparts, the ditches were partially filled up, 
and gaping breaches had been washed or wantonly cut in 
the walls. 2 

The founding of Fort Prince George purchased but a 
brief peace and short-lived confidence on the border. The 
very next year a party of emigrants from Pennsylvania, 
and Virginia, were set upon at the house of a Mr. Guttery, 
on Buffalo Creek, which enters Broad River in the north- 
west corner of York County, a few miles above the Union 
and Spartanburg line, by a party of sixty French Indians. 
The household and the emigrants together numbered 
twenty-one; of them sixteen were slaughtered at once, 
whose bodies were found scattered around in a circumfer- 
ence of some two or three hundred yards. The remaining 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 498, 504. 2 /^j^^.^ 505, 610. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 309 

five were carried off, of whom but one, as was supposed, 
was recovered. In the following October a little white 
child was rescued, who was supposed to have been of this 
party. An interesting circumstance connected with this 
tragedy was that a young couple had just left Mr. Gut- 
tery's house and gone forty miles or more to a Justice of 
the Peace to be married, and, unhappily, a neighboring 
family had come in to wait their return and were among 
the slaughtered. The massacre was discovered by the 
bridal party on their return. After murdering the people 
the savages killed all the cattle, hogs, and fowls about the 
premises and heaped their carcasses upon the dead bodies 
of the men and women. ^ 

Upon this Governor Glen invited another conference, 
but Attakullakulla, accompanied by an escort of nineteen 
warriors, brought down a message from the old chief, 
Old Hop, that he could not expose his warriors to the 
fatal sickness they had often contracted in town and on 
the Keowee trail. Notwithstanding this insolent mes- 
sage the Governor consented to meet their headmen in 
council at a point midway between the Cherokee Nation 
and Charlestown. The meeting was accordingly held at 
Saluda Old Town. 

Adair severely criticises the conduct of Governor Glen 
upon this occasion. "His Excellency, our Governor," he 
says, "neglected the proper measures to reconcile the 
wavering savages till the gentleman who was appointed 
to succeed him had just reached the American coast; then, 
indeed, he set out with a considerable number of gentle- 
men in flourishing parade, and went as far as Ninetj'-six 
settlement, from whence, as most probably he expected, 
he was fortunately recalled and joyfully superseded. I 
saw him on his way up, and plainl}- observed he was unpro- 

1 Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 430, 507, 508. 



310 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

vided for the journey; it must unavoidably have proved 
abortive before he could have proceeded through the 
Cherokee country. . . . He neither sent before nor car- 
ried with him any presents wherewith to soothe the natives, 
and his kind promises and smooth speeches would have 
weighed exceedingly light in an Indian scale." ^ 

As intimated by Adair, Governor Glen was now recalled 
and another appointed to supersede him. 

1 Hist, of the Am. Indians (Adair), 245, 246, 



CHAPTER XVII 
1755-60 

The fall of Limerick, observes a recent historian, had 
broken the power and crushed the hopes of the Irish 
Catholics. The penal laws had driven into exile all 
the high-spirited, ambitious, and intelligent members of 
the native aristocracy. The loss of their leaders had 
rendered the Celtic population no more formidable to 
the Protestant Englishry, said Swift, than the women 
and children to the men. The impotence of the com- 
mon enemy gave rein to the intestine jealousies of the 
dominant colony. The established church pressed her 
exclusive pretensions harder and harder against her 
Presbyterian and Independent allies, till, as Macaulay 
said, the latter no longer regarded the establishment as 
a splendid if one-sided trophy of the great Protestant 
conquest. To proscription and affronts, the descendants 
of the Scottish settlers of Ulster, the Cromwellian con- 
querors of the Southern provinces, the grandchildren 
of the defenders of Londonderry and Enniskillen, were 
little likely to submit. The flower of the Presbyterians 
followed the aristocracy of Catholic Ireland into exile. ^ 

Many, if not most, of these latter crossed the Atlantic 
and first settled in Pennsylvania, and reinforced by a con- 
siderable German immigration, they pushed forward to 
the western frontier of that province, where they found 

^ Percy Greg, Hist, of the U. S., vol. I, 152; England in the Eigh- 
teenth Century (Lecky), vol. II, 284, 435. 

"311 

d 



312 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

themselves in immediate contact with the Indian tribes, 
among whom the French hostile influence was predomi- 
nant. With these they speedily became involved in 
quarrels, which the Quakers in the settled districts pro- 
fessed to regard as needless and unrighteous, and so 
excused themselves from contributing to the expense of 
the consequent hostilities. 

The defeat of Braddock on the 9th of July, 1755, threw 
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia at the mercy 
of the Indians ; and these Scotch-Irish, thus exposed to 
the horrors of Indian war and without support from the 
wealthy Quakers of the East, abandoned Pennsylvania 
and came down, following the foot of the mountains, 
spreading themselves from Staunton, Virginia, to the Wax- 
haws (in what is now Lancaster County) of this province. 
From this point they peopled the upper country of this 
State. 

For about two centuries and a half, says Dr. Foote in 
his sketches of North Carolina, this race of people had but 
one set of moral, religious, and political principles work- 
ing out the noblest framework of society : obedience to the 
just exercise of the law; independence of sj)irit ; a sense 
of moral obligation ; strict attendance upon the worship 
of Almighty God ; the choice of their own teachers, with 
the unextinguishable desire to exercise the same privilege 
with regard to their civil rulers, believing that the mag- 
istrates govern by the consent of the people and by their 
choice. These principles brought from Ireland, he says, 
bore the same legitimate fruit in . Carolina as in Ulster 
Province, whose boundaries, travellers say, can be recog- 
nized by the peace and plenty that reigns within. Tliis 
was to come in time ; but the lot of the first of these 
emigrants to Carolina was one not of ease nor of safety. 

Besides the dangers from Indian incursions wliich these 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 313 

new-comers were soon to learn they had not left behind, 
on the Pennsylvania frontier, there were two other causes 
of trouble and anxiety which met them in Carolina. The 
first of these was the recognition and establishment by 
law of their old oppressor in Ireland, the Church of Eng- 
land, as a church of State ; the second was the impotence 
of the government on the coast to preserve law and order 
in these new settlements, and its failure to provide courts 
for the punishment of crime and for the administration of 
justice within reach of the people of this new part of the 
province. 

The second of these would undoubtedly have been re- 
moved in time, even if the Revolution had not taken place, 
and, as we shall see, the government at Charlestown was 
doing all that it could to provide courts for these people, 
but was thwarted by personal influences near the Board of 
Trade and Plantations in England. The first was still 
more difficult of removal — it was organic. It is difficult 
to conjecture how these discordant elements in the popu- 
lation of South Carolina would have been reconciled had 
not the Revolution disestablished the Church. But the 
people in the up country did not at first foresee the results 
of that movement ; and were generally inclined, in its 
commencement, to stand by the old government, which 
had set up the Church, rather than support the new one 
in the low country, which, even in rebellion, clung to it as 
the very foundation of society. 

The parish, as we have seen, was the basis of the civil 
as well as the religious organization of the government 
under which these new-comers had entered : all elections 
were held by the church wardens, and those for munici- 
pal offices on Easter Monday along with those for officers 
of the church ; all notices, legal and other, were posted at 
the church door; there caucuses were held of a Sunday 



314 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

morning before the service commenced ; the church was 
the place of meeting of the various public boards, and 
political discussions and orations were had in the churches 
themselves ; the representation in the Commons was by 
parishes; the masters of the free schools were to '^be of 
the religion of the Church of England and to conform 
to the same;" and the vestries assessed and levied taxes 
for the relief of the poor, of whom the church wardens 
were the overseers. 

With all this, as we have seen, the Huguenots had no 
disposition to quarrel, — indeed, they had stood with the 
churchmen on the coast during the troubles there growing 
out of the establishment of the Church,^ — nor had the 
German settlers on the Edisto or the Swiss on the Savan- 
nah. But the case was very different with the Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterian who was now coming into the province. 
The Church of England had held out no kindly hand to 
him. On the contrary, it had rewarded his zeal and hero- 
ism in the Protestant cause with oppression and wrong. 
It had not sheltered him as a refugee as it had the Hugue- 
not in the crypt of Canterbury and in St. Mary's Chapel 
of St. Patrick's Catliedral, Dublin. ^ On the contrary, it 
had driven him from his home. The Huguenot did not 
object to a liturgy ; he was accustomed to use one.^ But 
this the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian could not endure, for 
that had been one of the points upon which Knox had dif- 
fered with the English Reformers. He had left Ireland 
because he would not use it ; was he to do so now in the 
wild woods of Carolina ? Then the system of government 
was based here, as it had been in the old country which he 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 301, 392, 

2 The Huguenots (S. Mills), 284. 

8 Report of Committee on the Translation of the Liturgy, French Prot- 
estant Church, Charleston, 1836. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 315 

had left, upon the Church of England. He could only be 
represented in the Assembly by having the lands which 
he and his people had taken up made into a township and 
then into a parish. All this was the more distasteful to 
him because his own social and civil system was itself based 
upon an ecclesiastical idea — a church polity of its own. 

If the old St. PhiliiD's Church was a part of the consti- 
tution of South Carolina as Westminster Abbey was of the 
British constitution, so around the "old Waxhaw Church" 
in Lancaster — the first church above Orangeburg — was 
formed the settlement which gave tone and thought to the 
whole upper country of the State. ^ Unlike the old St. 
Philip's, with " its heavy structure, lofty arches, and mas- 
sive pillars adorned with elegant sepulchral monuments " 
of the early Governors and great men of the colony, this 
little church, the third that has stood near this spot, had 
nothing whatever of an ecclesiastical appearance. "The 
interior," says Parton in his Life of Jackson, " unpainted, 
unceiled, and uncushioned, with straight-back pews and 
rough Sunday-school benches, looks grimly wooden and 
desolate as the traveller removes the chip that keeps 
the door from blowing open and peeps in. And when the 
stranger stands in the churchyard among the old graves, 
though there is a house or two not far off, but not in sight, 
he has the feeling of one who comes upon the ancient burial- 
place of a race extinct. Rude old stones are there that 
were placed over graves when as yet a stonecutter was not 
in the province ; stones upon which coats of arms were 
once engraved, still partly decipherable ; stones which are 

1 Mr. Croker, in a letter to Robert Soutliey, asks, "Do you remember 
my once saying to you that Westminster Abbey was a part of tlie British 
constitution ? " See Historical Sketch of St. PhiUys Church (McCrady), 
Ymr Book City of Charleston (Smyth), 18i)6 ; Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch.y 
292 ; Southern Presbyterian Review, vol. XIV, No. 3, 472. 



316 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

modern as compared with those which yet record the ex- 
ploits of revolutionar}^ soldiers ; stones so old that every 
trace of inscription is lost, and stones as new as the new 
year. The inscriptions on the gravestones are usually 
simple and direct, and free from snivelling and cant. A 
large number of them end with Pope's line (incorrectly 
quoted), which declares an honest man to be the noblest 
work of God."i 

Among the Scotch- Irish who came down and settled 
in the Waxhaws around the old church were the Jacksons, 
Calhouns, and Pickens. Andrew Jackson was born there. 
Patrick Calhoun, the father of John C. Calhoun, first set- 
tled there ; then pushed on to the prairie county which 
is now Abbeville, and returned after the massacre at 
Long Canes and took refuge in the Waxhaws congrega- 
tion ; there he married a daughter of the Rev. Alexander 
Craighead, and after her death and his return to Abbe- 
ville he married Miss Caldwell, the mother of Carolina's 
great statesman. At the Waxhaws, too, Andrew Pickens 
met Rebecca Calhoun, whom he married. Here at the 
Waxhaws grew up William Richardson Davie, the dis- 
tinguished partisan leader of the Revolution, Governor of 
North Carolina and Minister to France, the founder of 
the University of North Carolina. From the same com- 
munity came Calhoun's great rival, the great Georgian, 
William H. Crawford; so that from this people came three 
of the greatest men of their times, — Jackson, Calhoun, 
and Crawford, — men upon and around whom turned 
the national politics of their day and whose antagonisms 
convulsed the whole country. To these must be added 
William Smith, Judge on the State Bench and United 
States Senator, whose State rights antedated Callioun's, 
and who was twice voted for as Vice President in the 

• - ^ Parton's Life of Jackson, 50, 51. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 317 

Electoral College, once in 1829, as from South Carolina, 
and again in 1841, as from Alabama, to which State he 
had removed ; and Dr. John Brown, one of the first Pro- 
fessors of the South Carolina College and the founder of 
the Presbyterian Church in Columbia, a schoolmate of 
Jackson, who rode with him when they were boys in 
their teens under Davie and Sumter at Hanging Rock.i 
From the Waxhaws, too, came Stephen D. Miller, a man 
of great power in his day and generation in society, at 
the bar, and in the councils of his country. 2 James H. 
Thornwell, an eminent divine and orator, President of 
the South Carolina College, and J. Marion Sims, a sur- 
geon of world-wide fame, and in his department doubtless 
the greatest of his time.^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 616. - 

2 O'NeaH's Bench and Bar, 2 vols. 

8 From the Waxhaws these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians pressed on 
throughout the upper pai-t of the State. Crossing the Catawba, the 
Adairs, Allisons, Brattons, Adrians, Blacks, Boggs, Brooms, Buchanans, 
Boyces, Bryces, Crawfords, Crocketts, Carrols, Carsons, Ciiambers, 
Dunlops, Douglasses, Erwins, Flemings, Irwins, Hancocks, Kirklands, 
Laceys, Kuykendals, Lathams, Loves, Lyles, Masseys, McCaws, McDan- 
iels. Mills, McCans, McKenzies, McHlhennys, McMullans, McLures, 
McMorrises, Martins, Neelys, Wylies, Witherspoons, Rosses, and Youngs, 
and others spread themselves over the " New Acquisition," the present 
^counties of Lancaster, York, Chester, and Fairfield. The Brandons, 
Bogans,"' Jollys, Kennedys, McQunkins, Youngs, Cunninghams, Savages, 
Hughs, Vances, and Wilsons settled in the present county of Union., 
Presb. Eeview, vol. XIV, 482. The McCrerys (or McCrearys), Greens, 
Hannahs, Abernathys, Millers, Beards, Wells, Coffees, Greshams, Bar- 
tons, Youngs, some of the McLures, Adamses, and McDaids settled in 
Newberry, in the fork between the Broad and Saluda, near Mr. John 
Duncan, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, who had settled himself there 
in 1752, three years before Braddock's defeat (Mills's Statistics of So. Ca., 
fi;W ; O'Neall's Annals of Newberry, 47, 49). To these were added the 
Caldwells, Thompsons, Youngs, Fairs, Carmichaels, Hunters, McClellans, 
Greggs, Wilsons, Conners, Neals, Camerons, Flemings, McCallas, Mont- 
gomerys, Sloans, Spencers, Wrights, Glenus, Chalmers, McCrackens, 



318 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

These people, says Dr. Foote, were, in the truest sense 
of the word, loyal. ^ They and their ancestors were well 
convinced of the importance of a regular and firm govern- 
ment and were true to their allegiance. They recognized 
the authority of the King as Supreme Ruler according 
to the solemn league and covenant. They expected the 
King to be honest while they were loyal. They fully 
believed that the liberties of the subject might consist 
with Royal authority. They claimed, and persisted in 
claiming, the privilege of choosing their own ministers 
or religious instructors as an inherent right that could 
not be given up and any civil or religious liberty pre- 
served. They yielded to the civil authority all honor and 
service and duty, and demanded protection for their per- 
sons in the enjoyment of their property and religion. 

These principles, transplanted from Scotland to Ireland 
and cherished there, were brought with them to America 
and have been characteristic of the Scotch-Irish settle- 

Glasgows. The names of the families, the founders of the community in 
Spartanburg at Nazareth Church, were Anderson, Miller, Barry, Moore, 
Collins, Thompson, Vernon, Pearson, Jamison, Dodd, Kay, Penny, 
McMahon, Nichol, Nesbitt, and Patton. So. Presb. Eevieic, vol. XIV, 
No. 3, 483 ; Ibid. The Mooriweathers, Wardlaws, Moores, Browns, 
McAlisters, and Logans with the Calhouns, pushed on still farther and 
settled in the prairie region, now the counties of Abbeville and Edgefield. 
Hist, of Upper iSo. Ca. (Logan), 25. 

The first settlers had the choice of lands in this part of the province, 
and it has been remarked of the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania, who had 
some experience of America and were also first on the soil in this region, 
that they were more favorably located than those who came afterwards 
directly from the North of Ireland through the port of Chai'leston. In 
1767 or 1768 other families came direct from Ireland, receiving their head- 
right of one hundred acres and supplied with the most indispensable 
implements of agriculture by the Colonial government. Among these 
were the families of Caldwell, Coan, Snoddy, Peden, Alexander, Gaston, 
and Norton. Fresb. lieview, vol. XIV, No. 3, 486. 

1 Sketches of No. Ca. , 120. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 319 

ments throughout the land. Children were taught to 
read and exercised in reading the Bible every day, and 
became familiar with the word of God in the family, in 
the school, and in the house devoted to the worship of 
Almighty God. The commands of God and the awful 
retributions of eternity gave force to these principles 
Avhich became a living power and controlling influence. 
The time had just passed, when Dr. Foote wrote in 1846, 
when the schoolmaster from Ireland taught the children 
of the Valley of Virginia and the upper part of the Caro- 
linas as they taught in the mother country; when the 
children and youth at school recited the Assembly's 
shorter catechism once a week and read parts of the Bible 
every day. The circle of the instruction was circum- 
scribed ; but the children were taught to speak the truth 
and defend it, to keep a good conscience and fear God — 
the foundation of good citizens and truly great men. 

Of the women of these people Dr. Foote writes: "An 
education — knowledge of things human and divine — they 
prized beyond all price in their leaders and teachers, and 
craved its possession for their husbands and brothers and 
sons. The Spartan mothers gloried in the bravery of 
their husbands and fathers and demanded it in their sons. 
' Bring me this or be brought back upon it,' said one, as 
she gave her son a shield to go out to battle. These 
Presbyterian mothers gloried in the enterprise and re- 
ligion and knowledge and purity of their husbands and 
children, and would forego comforts and endure toil that 
their sons might be well-instructed, enterprising men. . . . 
With many, and they," he says, "the influential men 
and women, the desire of knowledge was cherished before 
a competence was obtained or the labors of a first settle- 
ment overcome. Almost invariably as soon as a neighbor- 
hood was settled preparations were made for the preaching 



320 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the Gospel by a regular stated pastor, and wherever a 
pastor was located in that congregation there was a clas- 
sical school." ^ 

These new-comers who entered die province by the 
back door, as it were, bringing with them essentially 
different ideas of government of Church and State, were 
to have a marked and decided influence upon the polity 
and policy of tlie coming State ; were reluctantly to enter 
the contest with the Royal government inaugurated upon 
the coast ; but, goaded into it by the folly and cruelty 
of the British array, were to turn upon the invaders and 
by their stubborn resistance and heroic conduct to wrest 
from them the fruits of their success in the low country 
Reluctant again to enter the new government established 
after the Revolution, they were to become the dominant 
force in the State, and to produce the men who were 
to influence in a great degree the future course of events 
in the United States. 

1 Sketches of No. Ca., 512. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

1756-60 

A CHANGE in the administration of the Royal govern- 
ment had been determined upon in 1755, and hi« Excel- 
lency William Henry Lyttleton was sent to relieve 
Governor Glen. Governor Lyttleton was a descendant 
of the famous Sergeant Lyttleton, author of the celebrated 
treatise on English tenures. He presided over the colony 
for four years from the time of his arrival in Carolina, 
when he was transferred to the government of Jamaica, 
in 1760. His subsequent career was distinguished. In 
1766 he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to the court of Portugal, and in 1776 was elevated 
to the peerage of Ireland by the title of Baron Westcote 
of Balamore County, Longford. ^ 

Although hostilities had actually begun between Great 
Britain and France, neither court was prepared for an 
open declaration of war. It was in this uncertain con- 
dition of affairs between the two countries that Governor 
Lyttleton embarked for his province. The British com- 
manders at sea had orders to seize all French ships and 
bring them into port, and the French were retaliating. 
Thus it happened that on his way through the Bay of Bis- 
cay, the Governor was intercej^ted by a French squadron, 
under the command of Count de Guay, and carried into 
France ; but b}^ an order of the French court he was released 
and permitted to return to England. Again embarking, 
his Excellency safely arrived in Charlestown on the 1st of 

1 Burke's Peerage. 
VOL. II — Y 321 



322 JllSTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

eral Howe unfortunately resumed the invasion in 1778, 
and conducted it with no better success than had Lee. 
The troops which he took with him on tlie expedition were 
six hundred South Carolina continentals under Colonel 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, five hundred Ceorgia con- 
tinentals under Colonel Samuel Elbert of Georgia, and 
a considerable body of militia drawn from both States. 
That from Georgia was commanded by Governor Houston 
in person. The South Carolina militia were under Colo- 
nels Andrew Williamson and Stephen Bull. The route 
of the expedition lay through a country so barren tliat 
not a berry was to be found, nor a bud to be seen. No 
opposition of consequence from the eneni}" was met until 
the expedition reached Fort Tonyn. Indeed, it is not 
improbable that General Prevost who commanded in 
Florida was content to allow the season and climate to 
fight for him. And, as it was in Lee's invasion, the Eng- 
lish could have had no better ally. A malarial region, 
intense heat, bad water, insufficient shelter, and salt meat 
so impaired the health of Howe's troops that the hospi- 
tal returns showed one-half the men upon the sick list. 
Through lack of forage horses perished, and those which 
remained were so enfeebled that they were incapable of 
transporting the artillery and wagons. The soldiers were 
dispirited and distracted. The command was rent by 
factions, and Howe proved incompetent to deal with its 
discordant element. The same question which (ladsden 
had raised with Howe in Charlestown was now made 
in tlie midst of the expedition by Governor Houston 
and Colonel Williamson. Governor Houston refused to 
receive orders from Howe, and Williamson would not 
yield obedience to a continental officer. ^ The only troops 
upon which Howe could rely were the continental detach- 
1 Moultrie's Blcmoirs, vol. I, 230. 



IN THE REVOLUTIOISr 323 

ments under Colonels Pinckne}^ and Elbert. A council 
of war was called, and it ordered a retreat, but not before 
the little army had sustained a loss of upward of five 
hundred men ^ and more than half the six hundred South 
Carolina regular troops were in their graves or in the 
hospitals. 2 

There was, however, a brilliant episode to this unfortu- 
nate affair. Colonel Elbert, learning tliat several of the 
enemy's vessels, the brigantine Hinchenbrook, the sloop 
Rebecca, and a prize brig, were lying at Frederica, detailed 
three hundred men and, a detachment of artillerists with 
two field-pieces, of which he took command in person. 
Putting them on board of three galleys, he embarked at 
Darien and effected a landing a mile below the town, 
to which he immediately sent a detachment which seized 
some marines and sailors of the Hinchenbrook, and the 
next morning with the three little galleys boldly attacked 
the British ships drawn up in order of battle, and cap- 
tured them without the loss of a man. Colonel Pinckney 
wrote General Moultrie that, notwithstanding the reflec- 
tions cast on the propriety of Howe's expedition at that 
season, it was incontrovertible that with the capture of 
the Hinchenbrook and the other vessels it had proved the 
salvation of the State of Georgia. But if so, its salvation 
was but for a short period. The expedition which sailed 
from New York under Colonel Campbell and Provost's 
army from Florida were to find no force to oppose them, 
and Georgia was soon to be in complete possession of the 
British trooj^s. 

Prevost had wisely allowed Howe's expedition to ex- 
haust itself, and as it drew back its weak, sickly, and 

1 Life and Services of General Samuel Elbert, Charles C. Jones, Jr., 
21 ; Ramsay's Bevolution, vol. I, 152. 

2 Letter of Major Thomas Pinckney, Johnson's Traditions, 89. 



324 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAEOLINA 

disf)atched a messenger to overtake the ex-Governor and 
deliver to him, with other important information, an order 
for Captain Raymond Demere of the Provincials,^ to the 
effect that those troops should be disbanded. 

Governor Glen's wagon-train arrived safely at Ninety- 
six, the Provincials were disbanded, the two companies 
from Fort Moore returned to that post, and Captain 
Demere, with the ex-Governor and young Ensign Coy to- 
more, proceeded to Fort Prince George at the head of the 
party going to the site of Fort Loudon. Before setting 
out, however, Captain Demere prepared a communication 
for Governor Lyttleton, concluding with a remark signifi- 
cant in view of what afterward occurred. " I find myself 
alone here, "he writes, "with a young officer who, although 
quite capable, is yet too young for such a command unas- 
sisted at this time. I shall therefore march with the whole 
party myself as far as Keowee, and there await further 
orders from your Excellency."^ While resting at Fort 
Prince George, Demere was visited by Little Carpenter, 
whose conduct aroused his suspicions, but was passed over 
upon the ground of intoxication, not hov/ever to the entire 
satisfaction of the captain, who regarded the Indian as 
deceitful when sober and an impertinent fellow at all 
times. ^ The timely supplies, however, with the erection 
of Fort Loudon gave a respite of tranquillity and hope to 
the infant settlements along the Cherokee line. But, as 
Logan observes, no human instrumentality could have 
availed to reform a people so hopelessly degenerate as the 
Cherokees had now become. While the flesh was yet in 
their mouths which the English had brought, at great 

1 Captain Demere had shortly before returned from Virginia where he 
had been with Braddock in his disastrous expedition to the Monongahela. 
So. Ga. Gazette. 

2 Hist, of Upper So. Ca., 513-515. » Ibid, 517. , 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 325 

expense, to relieve their starving condition, murmurs and 
discontent broke out afresh. Governor Glen and the gen- 
tlemen who had accompanied him returned to Charles- 
town. ^ 

Upon assuming the administration of the government. 
Governor Lyttleton found two matters demanding imme- 
diate attention. In the quarrel between the Council and 
the Commons no supplies had been granted, and a number 
of Acadians had arrived in Charlestown for whom some 
provision must be made. The Assembly had adjourned to 
the 5th of October. Governor Lyttleton therefore, on the 
15th of June, issued his proclamation summoning them to 
meet on the 17th. This they promptly did, and imme- 
diately proceeded to business. 

The English, it will be remembered, had taken Nova 
Scotia in 1710, and it had been formally ceded by France 
in 1713. But Great Britain had neglected the country 
until 1749, during which time the French settlers, under 
the name of Neutrals, who were still very numerous in 
the colony, with the aid of the Indians, held the British 
settlers in constant alarm, and it is said had murdered 
many of them.^ In 1749 the designs of the French becom- 
ing marked, the government of England made strenuous 
efforts to induce British settlers to go there. More than 
four thousand emigrants sailed for the colony, and Halifax 
was founded. But the French Neutrals, or Acadians, who 
still constituted a considerable portion of the population, 
with their Indian allies, continued to be troublesome. 
They were required, therefore, to take the oath of alle- 
giance to the British Crown or leave the country. This 
they attempted, it was said, to evade, and would only take 
the oath with a proviso that they should not be obliged to 

1 So. Ca. GazpttP, July 1, 1756. 
^ Hist, of Nova Scotia (Martin), 7. 



326 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

take up arms against their Indian allies ; but the govern- 
ment was firm and required an unconditional compliance 
or an immediate departure. There can be no questicm as 
to the justice and necessity of this requirement; but the 
manner in which it was enforced has enlisted the deepest 
sympathy of the world for the unhappy exiles and indig- 
nation at their treatment. They were not only driven 
from their homes relentlessly, and their homes reduced to 
ashes to prevent their return, but families were ruthlessly 
broken up, and separated, and scattered in the different 
colonies from Maine to Georgia. But the S3-mpathy 
which the poet has excited in Evangeline by his tale of 
Acadie was not aroused at the time, nor was it true that 
all families of the expelled Acadians were broken up — 
such was certainly not the case of those who were sent to 
South Carolina. Unfortunately the expulsion of the 
Acadians followed very closely the defeat of Braddock, 
and to the people in the Southern colonies they were noth- 
ing else but Frenchmen who were still refusing to abandon 
their Indian allies, from Avhom these people were living 
in dread. 

The G-azette of November 6, 1755, announces that the 
Baltimore Snoiv is hourly expected from the Bay of Fundy 
with some transport vessels, having a number of Neutral 
French on board who were being distributed among the 
British colonies. Then on the 20th the arrival of a num- 
ber is mentioned, and so on, for several weeks, the arrivals 
of Neutral French continue to be reported in almost every 
issue of the paper, until 1020 of them had been brought 
into Charlestown. The presence of these people created 
great uneasiness in the colony, an uneasiness which was 
greatly increased when, in February, 1756, two parties of 
them attempted to escape. The Gazette of the 12th of 
February reports that the Acadians wlio had attempted 



UNDEE THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 327 

to escape had been retaken and brought back, with the 
exception of about thirty, Avho were still missing. Then 
it adds that it has just received information that five or 
six of them had gone to the plantation of Mr. John Will- 
iams on the Santee while he was absent, had terrified his 
wife, robbed the house of firearms and clothes, and broken 
up a box from which they had taken money. The hue and 
cry had been raised and the neighborhood had gone after 
them, but they escaped to the river. '"Tis hoped," adds 
the Gazette, "the Acadians will not be permitted to com- 
mit anymore robberies." The Gazette of the 19th reports 
that the Acadians had not been recaptured, but it learns 
that the people are determined they shall not escape that 
way or any other; but it is probable, it continues, that 
they may reach Fort Duquesne, or Canada, as it learned 
some of them hinted they could easily do, unless inter- 
cepted in some of the neighboring colonies. The same 
journal, on April 1st, tells of a party who had arrived from 
Georgia. We hear, it continues, that these people are 
infatuated with the notion that they shall obtain leave to 
pass in like manner through all the governments on this 
side of Nova Scotia until they reach that place ; but such, 
it observes, have not considered to what end they have 
been removed from there. On the 15th the Gazette tells 
of eighty Acadians who went off in seven canoes as far as 
Sullivan's Island and put to sea next morning to proceed 
along the coast to the northwest, having obtained pass- 
ports ; and three hundred more will soon follow. Such 
were the frantic efforts these poor people were making 
to reach their old homes. 

The first act of Governor Lyttleton's administration was 
one to dispose of the Acadians in Charlestown.^ The act 
recited that it had become necessary to disperse into differ- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 31. 



328 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ent parts of the province the several families of Acadians 
then in the toAvn, as well to prevent their doing any mis- 
chief, as to avoid the danger of any infectious distemper 
breaking out amongst them, which might reasonably be 
apprehended from such numbers dwelling in close and 
inconvenient habitations at that hot season of the year. 
For these reasons it was provided that four-fifths of the 
Acadians should be sent out and dispersed through the 
other parishes at the public expense, to be defrayed by a 
general tax on the estates, real and personal, in the 
province. The church wardens and vestry of the parishes 
were charged with providing for their support for three 
months unless they could dispose of them before. They 
were authorized to bind the Acadians for a term of years 
to such persons as should be willing to take them. The 
remaining fifth were to be provided for in the town by the 
church wardens and vestry of St. Philip's. The Acadians 
were prohibited from having firearms.^ 

Having thus disposed of the Acadians, the Assembly 
proceeded at once to provide for supplies they had with- 
held under Governor Glen. An act was passed for raising 
and granting to his Majesty the sum of ,£91,157 lis. 3f/. 
3/"., and for applying .£2471 18s. 9r?., the balance of sev- 
eral funds in the public treasury, making £93,629 10s. 3f. 
for defraying the charges of the government for one year.^ 
Having passed these pressing measures, on the 6th of 

1 The Acadians in one way or other ultimately left the province. But 
few remained. Among these are the family of Lanneau in Charleston, 
who embraced the Protestant faith and have long been recognized for their 
devoted piety. Two of them, Rev. John F. Lanneau, long a missionary 
to Jerusalem, and Basil Edward Lanneau, for some years Hebrew tutor in 
the Theological Seminary at Columbia and afterward in the Oakland 
College of Mississippi, have been favorably known. Hist, of Presb. Ch. 
(Howe), 80.3. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 34. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 329 

July, 1756, the General Assembly was adjourned to the 
first Tuesday in the next November. 

The anomalous and curious condition in which hos- 
tilities had been carried on by France and England against 
each in America, while relations of peace and amity 
were still nominally preserved in Europe, was now at an 
end, and as war was openly declared vigorous measures 
were openly pursued and an extensive campaign was pro- 
jected. A meeting of all the Governors was immediately 
called at New York for the purpose of holding a grand 
council of war to concert a plan of operations. The Gov- 
ernors of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland attended the Council, and a plan of campaign in 
the Northern States was agreed upon, which ultimately 
resulted, however, in as great defeat and utter disappoint- 
ment as that of Braddock the year before. The campaign 
of 1757 was no more successful. In 1758 the tide of suc- 
cess however began to turn. Of the three expeditions that 
had been planned for the year, the first, that against Louis- 
bourg led by General Amherst and Admiral Boscawen, 
had been successful, and resulted in the complete British 
possession of the whole island of Cape Breton, and the 
way to Quebec had been opened. The second, that against 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, had failed. General Aber- 
crombie had been repulsed under the walls of Ticonderoga. 
The third was designed against Fort Duquesne, a position 
which gave its possessor vast influence over the savages, 
and from whence the French had been in the habit of 
making with their Indian allies terrible and bloody incur- 
sions into Pennsylvania, Marjdand, and Virginia. This, 
too, under General Forbes, had succeeded, and the French 
had been expelled. During these three 3^ears South Caro- 
lina had been undisturbed; but as it was again to happen 
during the revolutionary struggle, her respite was to end 



330 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in the disasters of the hast years of the war. While the 
glorious victories in Canada — Quebec and Montreal — 
were being achieved, the Indian savages, incited by the 
French, who were driven from the Ohio upon the fall of 
Duquesne, had come down upon the defenceless frontier 
of South Carolina, and the tomahawk and scalping knife 
were busy among her people. 

Though the Cherokees had not yet broken with the Eng- 
lish colonists in Carolina, they had already been tampered 
with, to a great extent, by the French. They had, how- 
ever, sent considerable parties of warriors to the assistance 
of the British army under General Forbes in the expedition 
against Fort Duquesne, and with these Little Carpenter 
himself had gone. From some cause he had taken offence 
and, with nine warriors, had deserted the expedition, upon 
which General Forbes had sent after, arrested, and dis- 
armed them.i Upon his return to the Nation the Indian 
chief had exhibited no resentment at this, and talked of 
a visit to Charlestown.2 It is not improbable, however, 
that this incident was of potent influence in the subse- 
quent relations of the Cherokee Nation to the English 
colonists, though, if so, it was entirely disguised. Other 
occurrences followed in connection with this expedition 
of more apparent and immediate consequences. Another 
party of Cherokees, deserting the expedition on their return 
through North Carolina, committed murders, taking witli 
them to the town of Settico twenty-two white scalps. 
These Little Carpenter had at once buried, to the great 
dissatisfaction of the Settico men, thus exhibiting still 
his regard for his old friends, the English.^ Later, some 
of the Cherokees, who apparently had remained with Gen- 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, January 19, 1759. 

^ Ibid., April 14, 1759. 

8 Ibid., May 12 and June 9, 1759. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 331 

eral Forbes to the end of the expedition, returning through 
the back parts of Virginia, having h)st their horses, con- 
sidered themselves free to seize upon such as came in their 
way. The owners of the horses in retaliation fell upon 
and killed ten or twelve of the marauders. Upon reaching 
home the Indians complained loudly of their treatment, 
and the friends and relatives of those who had been slain 
aroused the whole Nation to revenge. The old chiefs were 
still opposed to the war and apparently did all they could 
to prevent hostilities, but the French emissaries were at 
work inflaming their resentment and furnishing the young 
men with arms and ammunition. Parties of young war- 
riors took the field, and rushing down among the white 
inhabitants of the frontier murdered and scalped all who 
came in their way. Captain Demere, the commanding 
officer at Fort Loudon, dispatched a messenger to inform 
Governor Lyttleton, and orders were at once issued to the 
officers of the militia to collect immediately their men, 
who were ordered to rendezvous at the Congarees, where 
the Governor would follow them and march at once to the 
relief of the frontier. 

The chiefs of the Cherokees, still however wishing to 
avoid war, and desiring to settle all differences with their 
white neighbors, opened communication with Governor 
Ellis of Georgia, and induced him to intervene to such an 
extent that Governor Lyttleton agreed to receive a depu- 
tation from the Cherokees if sent to " talk " with him. At 
least so the Cherokees claimed to have understood the 
message received by them. 

In the meanwhile Captain Demere, at Fort Loudon, 
finding that trouble was brewing, sent for Occonostota, 
also distinguished by the name of the Great Warrior, who, 
with two or three headmen, came accordingly, and upon 
being asked by Captain Demere wdiy the Cherokees had 



332 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

killed the white j)eople and declared war, answered that 
from the towns of Chote, Tenesee, Tequo, and Tomotly 
there was not one guilty of any of the outrages complained 
of. That the crimes were committed by young people 
who would give ear to no admonition, and who believed 
that the English intended to destroy them all, and make 
slaves of their wives and children ; the French had told 
them, they said, that when the English had once completed 
the fort in their Nation, and made settlements, they would 
withhold ammunition from them, and extirpate all the men 
and enslave their women and children ; that the Fiench 
were making great offers for the scalps of Englishmen. 
Captain Demere assured them that the English had no such 
designs; that they had only stopped the supply of ammu- 
nition upon the discovery of the inimical disposition of the 
Lower Cherokees. He offered to convince them of the truth 
of what he said whenever they would go down to Keowee. 
Upon this assurance the Great Warrior went down to Fort 
Prince George at Keowee and took with him several other 
headmen. Upon arriving there he asked for ammunition 
and was refused, whereupon, being assured that he could 
go to Charlestown and return safely he determined to do so, 
and joined a deputation from the Lower Towns he found 
there going to Governor Lyttleton under the arrangement 
made for them by Governor Ellis of Georgia. 

Upon their arrival in Charlestown the Indian chiefs had 
conference in the Council Chamber with Governor Lyt- 
tleton, extending through several days. On the first day, 
October 18th, Occonostota told his Excellency that they 
were not come to give a "talk" or make iDropositions to 
him ; that hearing he had sent a letter to the Nation they 
expected to receive a "talk " from him. The Governor in 
reply ordered the interpreter to inform them that it was 
true he had sent a letter to their Nation upon receiving a 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 333 

copy of a "talk" with Governor Ellis of Georgia by one 
Woahatches, in the name of the Upper and Lower towns, 
desiring the Governor of Georgia to interpose his good 
oiiices in accommodating matters between the Cherokees 
and the Carolina government, and declaring their inten- 
tions to be peaceable; not to invite them, but to permit 
any that were peaceably disposed to come, and to inform 
them that he was then ready to hear what they had to say. 
The Great Warrior upon this told his Excellency that he 
was then unprepared; that his hands were bare, and he 
brought no token, but that he would give a "talk" the 
next day. To this the Governor agreed. 

On Friday, the 19th, the Indians met the Governor 
again in the Council Chamber, when the Great Warrior 
and the other spokesman addressed his Excellency, in 
substance, that they had been sent by Old Hop ^ to make 
the path straight, to brighten the chain, and to accommo- 
date differences. They confessed that outrages had been 
committed by the Nation, but they alleged that their 
young men were the authors, and that they had been pro- 
voked to commit them by the irregularities of some white 
people at the fort. They then desired that all that was 
past might now be forgot. They did not, however, offer 
any satisfaction, as was expected. They laid skins at the 
Governor's feet and offered strings of white beads, which 
his Excellency permitted them to lay down, but would not 
receive. When they had finished their "talk," the Gov- 
ernor ordered them to be informed that he would consider 
what they had said, and gave them notice to attend when 
he should be ready to give them his answer. 

The Monday following the Indians were summoned to 
attend the Council Chamber, when the Governor told them 

1 The King Chotie and the great beloved wise man of the Nation 
Hist, of Upper So. Ca. (Logan), 461. 



334 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that although the Great Warrior and the other Indians of 
the Upper Nation then present pretended to be deputed to 
come to him, he knew they were not; that they had only 
come in consequence of being refused ammunition at Keo- 
wee ; that he had advices then in his hands, received the 
night before, that since they had come away a large party 
was gone out from Settico to fall upon the settlements of 
Broad River; and that a soldier from Fort Prince George, 
who had been sent out to drive in some cattle, had been 
stopped by some Indians, who took his horse by the bridle, 
led him into the middle of the town, and cut him severely 
with a tomahawk, then bid him go home and say it was war. 
They had therefore no right to be protected according to 
the "talk" he had sent up to the Nation. Then turning 
to those of the Lower Nation his Excellency said that 
although it was true they had been deputed, a party sent 
out afterward had fired, upon an express from their coun- 
try coming down to him. They also were not therefore 
entitled to protection. Nevertheless, the Governor con- 
tinued, as they said they came down expecting to be pro- 
tected they should be. His Excellency then enumerated 
the outrages and murders the Nation had committed, and 
went on to say that the people of the province, determined 
no longer to bear their insults, were in arms ; that he him- 
self was going with a great many of his warriors to the 
Nation to demand satisfaction; that if when he arrived 
there the satisfaction he should ask should be given, it 
would be peace, the path would be open again, and the 
trade restored. But if they refused to give it, he would 
take it. The Governor concluded by telling the Indians 
that they should return with him and his Avarriors ; that 
they would be safe only by going with him, and advised 
them not to straggle out of the direct road, where he would 
not answer for their safety. 



UNDER THE IIOYAL GOVERNMENT 335 

Governor Lyttleton's course in this matter was not alto- 
gether approved by his Council. William Bull, who had 
a lifelong acquaintance with Indian affairs, — who had 
been a soldier in Oglethorpe's expedition, and repeatedly 
Speaker of the Commons, now General of the Militia, and 
recently appointed Lieutenant Governor, his commission 
however not yet having arrived, — strongly advised against 
it and urged the Governor to give the Indians a hearing. 
But the Governor was inflexible and put an end to the 
conference. The chiefs were very indignant. They had 
travelled far to secure peace, and that under a pledge 
of safe-conduct. They certainly had not violated its 
terms. And after all to be denied the "talk" they had 
come for, and to be forced to return with the Governor's 
army, practicall}^ as prisoners, aroused their deepest 
resentment. 

On Wednesday, the 29th of October, his Excellency 
set out at 10 a.m. upon his expedition to humble the 
Cherokees. He was accompanied by the Hon. Brigadier 
General Bull, and Colonel Howarth of the Provincial 
Force, and attended by his staff and several officers 
appointed for the expedition. His staff" consisted of 
Major Henry Hyrne, late of the Provincials, Adjutant 
General, Lieutenant Lachlan Shaw, Esq., Brigade Major; 
Ensign Lachlan Mcintosh, Quarter Master, and William 
Drayton and William Moultrie, Esq., Aides-de-camp; 
George Milligan, Esq., Surgeon. The Charlestown and 
Stono Troop of Horse, and Captain Christopher Gadsden 
with sixteen volunteers from the artillery company he 
had lately raised. The army was to rendezvous at the 
Congarees.^ 

The Cherokee chiefs marched with the Governor and 

1 In this account of the outbreak of the Cherokees, we have followed 
the contemporaneous accounts given in the So. Ca. Gazette. 



336 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his escorts until they joined the army. They put on an 
appearance of contentment; inwardly they burned with 
fury. When the army moved from the Congarees all j^re- 
tence in regard to them was put aside, they were all treated 
as prisoners, and two of them having escaped, a captain's 
guard was mounted over the rest. On their part, they no 
longer attempted to conceal their resentment. Their sul- 
len looks and gloomy countenances bespoke their indig- 
nation. Upon their arrival at Fort Prince George they 
were all huddled together and shut up in a hut scarcely 
sufficient for the accommodation of six soldiers. 

Governor Lyttleton had proceeded with far too great a 
precipitancy. He had rushed into a war for which he was 
not prepared, and had undertaken an invasion without 
having organized a proper force with which to prosecute 
it. The militia assembled at the Congarees were but 
poorly armed, worse disciplined, and were discontented 
and mutinous. So far from being able to carry out his 
promise to the old chiefs of letting them know in their 
own country his demand for satisfaction and receiving it 
there at the point of his bayonets, he had not proceeded 
far from the Congarees when he found that his rabble 
army was in no condition to invade the enemy's country, 
and was reduced to the mortifying necessity of doing that 
which he might, with much greater force and dignity, have 
done without leaving Charlestown. The Governor sent on 
in advance of his approach a message to Attakullakulla, 
or the Little Carpenter, who was still esteemed the 
steadiest friend of the English, to meet him at Fort Prince 
George. 

This summons was promptly obeyed, and on the 17th 
of December a congress was held, at which the Governor, 
in a long speech, recapitulated to Attakullakulla tlie 
injuries done by the Cherokees to the white people in 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 337 

violation of their treaties. He extolled the power of the 
English and depicted the weakness of the French, and 
concluded by assuring the Indian chief that the great 
King, whom he rejDresented, would not suffer his people 
to be destroyed without satisfaction ; that if he made war, 
the Indians would suffer for their rashness — their men 
would be destroyed, their women carried into captivity. 
"I have twice," he said, "given you a list of the mur- 
derers. I will now tell you there are twenty men of your 
Nation whom I demand to be delivered to me to put to 
death or otherwise disposed of as I shall think fit. Your 
people have killed that number of ours, and more, there- 
fore, it is the least I will accept of. I shall give you till 
to-morrow to consider it, and then I shall expect your 
answer." 

Looking at the miserable array of the Governor's grand 
army, it must have been with some lurking amusement 
that the grave and wise Indian replied that he remembered 
the treaties to which the Governor referred. He had a 
share in making them. He owned the kindness of the 
province of South Carolina, but complained much of the 
treatment his countrymen had received in Virginia. He 
had always been a true friend of the English, and would 
ever continue such, and would use all the influence he 
had to persuade his countrymen to give the Governor 
the satisfaction he demanded, though — he was candid 
enough to add — he believed it neither would nor could be 
complied with, as they had no coercive authority one over 
another. He desired the Governor to release some of the 
headmen then confined in the fort to assist him, and 
added that he was pleased to hear of the success of his 
brothers the English, but could not help mentioning that 
they showed more resentment against the Cherokees than 
they did to the other nations that had disobliged them ; 



338 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that he remembered some years ago several whites belong- 
ing to Carolina were killed by the Choctaws, for whom no 
satisfaction had been either demanded or given. 

Upon the request of Attakullakulla the Governor re- 
leased Occonostota, Fiftoe, the chief man of Keowee- 
town, and the head warrior of Estatoe, who, the next day, 
delivered up two Indians, whom Governor Lyttleton at 
once put in irons. Upon this all the other Cherokees 
who were without influential connections fled, thus ren- 
dering it impossible to complete the number of hostages 
demanded. Attakullakulla, convinced that peace could 
not be obtained on the terms demanded, abandoned his 
efforts and left the camp; but Governor Lyttleton, as 
soon as he learned of his departure, sent after him, beg- 
ging his return, and upon his coming renewed negotia- 
tions. An agreement was reached and a treaty was drawn 
up and signed by the Governor, by Attakullakulla, another 
chief, and by four of the warriors who, with a few others, 
had obtained their liberty. B}^ an article of this treaty 
it was agreed that twenty-six chieftains of the Cherokees 
should be confined in the fort as hostages until the same 
number of Indians guilty of murder should be given up. 
This was said to be done with the consent of the Indian 
hostages themselves, but it must be recollected they were 
still practically prisoners, and so really had no choice. 
One Indian was delivered up for whom one of the hostages 
was released. The three Indians given up were carried to 
Charlestown, where they died in confinement. 

Having concluded this treaty the Governor returned 
home. Perhaps the Indians who put their marks to it 
did not understand its provisions, or perhaps conceived 
themselves to be so far under restraint as not to be free 
agents in the transaction, and therefore not bound by an 
agreement extorted from them under the circumstances. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 339 

But whatever view they took of it, it is certain the Nation 
paid it not the slightest regard. ^ 

The Governor's conduct was as inglorious as it was 
unwise and unfair. His conduct to the chiefs, against 
whom no personal charge was made, who had travelled far 
to obtain peace, was little less than treacherous. The dis- 
tinction which he put up between a permission and an 
invitation to them to come was too subtle to be allowed 
even in dealing with Indians. His permission or invita- 
tion had been accompanied by no condition of a truce 
during the embassy. War had begun, and they had come 
to try to put an end to it ; but this did not stay the hands 
of the Indians until terms had been agreed to. He had no 
right, therefore, to detain them in the first instance. But 
not only so, he had promised that they should be returned 
home without "hurting a hair of their heads." He had 
required them to march with him as a precaution for 
their safety — to protect them from his men. This prom- 
ise he had violated and had made them prisoners. Like 
many other officials, military and civil, coming from Eng- 
land, Governor Lyttleton supposed he knew more about 
Carolina and Indian affairs than native Carolinians, and 
disregarding Bull's advice he allowed himself in the end 
to be completely overreached by the wily Attakullakulla, 
who shrewdly traded him out of the birds he had in hands 
for those in the bush. He secured the release of the great 
Avarrior Occonostota, who was soon to take terrible ven- 
geance for his treatment. 

Scarcely had Governor Lyttleton concluded the treaty of 
Fort Prince George when the smallpox, which was raging 
in the adjoining Indian towns, broke out in his camp. 
As few of the men of his little force had had the distem- 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 215, 225 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. 
Ca., vol. I, 1G7, 173. 



340 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

per, they were struck with terror, abandoned the expe- 
dition, returned in haste to the settlement, avoiding each 
other on the way and suffering greatly from hunger and 
fatigue. Abandoned by his men, the Governor followed, 
and arrived in Charlestown on January 8, 1760. 

The expedition cost the province £25,000 sterling. 
Though not a drop of blood had been spilt during the 
campaign, yet as a treaty of peace had been signed, the 
Governor was received as a conqueror with the greatest 
demonstrations of joy.^ The Gazette of the 12th an- 
nounces that, attended by the gentlemen who had acted 
as his staff on the expedition, and Captain Gadsden, with 
the gentlemen of his company of artillery who had gone 
as volunteers, the Governor had intended to make his 
entry into town in a private manner; but Captain Gads- 
den's company, hearing of their coming, marched, in uni- 
form, two miles up the Path — as the road to the town was 
called — to meet him, and saluted his Excellency with 
two volleys and three cheers, which they afterward repeated 
at his own door. The next day the Council entertained 
him at dinner, the forts and the vessels in the harbor fired 
salutes and displayed all their colors, and the Regiment 
of Foot and the Troop of Horse were drawn up in Broad 
Street as his Excellency passed to dine with the Council. 
The evening was concluded with illuminations and bon- 
fires and other demonstrations of joy. The Library 
Society, the anniversary of which happened on the day of 
his arrival, unanimously reelected him its President, and 
tended him an address of congratulation upon his safe 
return and the happy and honorable termination of the 
expedition, particularly as they regarded his Excellency 
not only as their Governor and protector, but as the patron 
of literature and the President of the Society, under whose 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 174. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 341 

vigorous administration not onl}^ riches and commerce, 
but learning and every branch of polite and useful knowl- 
edge, must flourish. The Presbyterian clergy also joined 
in congratulating his Excellency upon his useful and able 
conduct and becoming firmness and unshaken resolution 
displayed in leading undisciplined men in a long and 
fatiguing march through an enemy's country, and obtain- 
ing from the Cherokees the just satisfaction he had 
demanded.^ 

These rejoicings were scarcely over, and the Governor's 
ansAvers to the dutiful addresses were scarcely read, when 
the news came that fresh hostilities had been committed 
by the Indians ; that the Cherokees had killed fourteen 
men within a mile of Fort Prince George. 

Governor Lyttleton had left Ensign Coytomore, the 
young officer who, as we have seen, though capable, Cap- 
tain Demere thought too young for such a position, in 
command of Fort Prince George. The Indians had con- 
ceived an invincible antipathy to this officer, and with 
good reason, if the stories about his conduct were true. 
This and the treatment they had received from the Gov- 
ernor converted their former desire for peace into the bit- 
terest rage for war. Occonostota, whom Attakullakulla 
had so adroitly released from Governor Lyttleton 's inju- 
dicious imprisonment, had now become an implacable 
enemy of Carolina, determined to repay treachery with 
treachery. With a strong party of Cherokees he sur- 
rounded Fort Prince George and compelled the garrison 
to keep within their works ; but finding that he could not 
take it by force, he determined to do so by stratagem. 
He enticed Coytomore and two others to a conference, 
and upon their coming out of the fort shot Coytomore 
dead and wounded his companions. Upon this the garri- 

^ So. Ca. Gazette. 



342 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

son fell upon the unfortunate Indian hostages within the 
fort and butchered them all in a shocking manner. The 
result of this was disastrous. Few men in the Cherokee 
Nation did not lose a friend or relative by this massacre, 
and with one voice they all immediately declared for war. 
Burning with impatience to imbue their hands in the 
blood of their enemies, they rushed down among the 
innocent and defenceless families on the frontier, and 
men, women, and children fell sacrifices to their merci- 
less fury. Those who escaped the Indians perished with 
hunger, and those who were taken captives were carried 
into the wilderness and suffered incredible hardships. 
The inhabitants of Long Canes, in what is now Abbeville 
County, fled for refuge to the older settlements and more 
protected parts of the country. ^ 

One of the most terrible incidents of this uprising was 
the massacre of the Calhouns. A party, of whom Patrick 
Calhoun was one, attempting to remove their wives, chil- 
dren, and most valuable effects to Augusta, were attacked 
by the Cherokees on the 1st of February, 1760, and some 
fifty, mostly women and children, were slain. Many 
children were found, after the massacre, wandering in the 
woods. One man found nine of these little fugitives; 
some had been cut and left for dead, others were found in 
the bloody field scalped, yet living. Two little girls, 
daughters of Mr. William Calhoun, — brother of Patrick, 
— were carried into captivity. The elder of them was, 
after some years, rescued; the other was never heard of. 
The scene of this massacre is on a descent just before 
reaching Patterson's bridge. Attacked at the moment 
when they had stopped to make an encampment, and 
entangled by their wagons, they could offer but little 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 228 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 176. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 343 

resistance. Some, however, were so fortunate as to 
escape ; cutting loose the horses and favored by night they 
fled to another part of the company, which was making 
their way to the Waxhaws. Among the slain was the 
mother of the party, Mrs. Catherine Calhoun, and a curi- 
ous stone, engraved by a native artist, marks the spot 
where she fell among her children and her neighbors. 
Patrick Calhoun, who returned to the place where the 
tragedy had happened to bury the dead, found twenty dead 
bodies inhumanly mangled. The Indians had set fire to 
the woods, had rifled the carts and wagons, but had not 
destroyed them. Patrick Calhoun represented the settle- 
ment as at the time amounting to about two hundred and 
fifty souls, fifty-five to sixty-five of whom were fighting 
men, but they were not then in a condition to resist.^ 

It must have been a bitter mortification to Governor 
Lyttleton to witness this result of his glorious, but blood- 
less, campaign, for which he had so complacently accepted 
the adulation of the people, who supposed that he had 
really secured for them a lasting peace. It must have been 
still more mortifying to him to have at this time to turn 
over the government to William Bull, who had now 
received his commission as Lieutenant Governor,^ and 
to whose advice he had refused to listen when the Indian 
chiefs had come to treat for peace. Whether he would have 
desired to remain to recover a right to the compliments 
of the people so freely bestowed, we have no means of 
ascertaining, for about this time he was transferred to 
the government of the colony of Jamaica, then esteemed 
the highest colonial appointment, and sailed for his new 
province on the 4th of April, 17G0.^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 307. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette of March 6, 1760, announces that his commission 
had come over in the Live Oak. ^ So. Ca. Gazette. 



344 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor Lyttleton's experience was but a repetition of 
Oglethorpe's and Braddock's — the result of the same 
overweening confidence each of these had in his own 
superiority and contemptuous disregard for the opinions 
of the colonists in matters about which neither of them 
could possibly have had any personal experience, and 
with which the colonists had a lifelong familiarity. Had 
Oglethorpe listened to Palmer, and Braddock to Wash- 
ington, and Lyttleton to Bull, each might have been 
spared an ignominious failure, and the unfortunate people 
whose fortunes were in their hands might have been saved 
infinite distress and misery. These were among the first 
lessons in the necessity of home rule in America. 



CHAPTER XIX 

1760-65 

Thomas Pownal^ had been commissioned Governor 
of South Carolina in the room of William Henry Lyttle- 
ton, and awaiting his arrival William Bull, who had been 
Speaker while his father was Lieutenant Governor, and 
who had now himself been appointed to that office,^ issued 
his proclamation assuming the administration on the 16th 
of April, 1760.^ Pownal did not come to the province, and 
Bull continued to administer the government until the 
arrival, on the 22d of December, 1761, of Thomas Boone, 
who was transferred from the government of New Jersey 
to that of this province. In the fifteen years during which 
William Bull was to hold the office of Lieutenant Governor 
he was repeatedly to be left to an administration involved 
in difficulty. By his judicious conduct, securing the con- 
iidence of his fellow-citizens, he was repeatedly to restore 
order and good will in the province. The fifth and last 
time it was too late, though it has been supposed by some 
that had he been invested with supreme power in the 
province at the crisis of American affairs there might 
have been no revolution in South Carolina.^ 

1 Thomas Pownal had previously held at the same time the commission 
of Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey and that of Governor of Massachu- 
setts, and had, in 1757, attempted to govern both provinces at once, but 
this he found impracticable. He afterward was a member of Parliann nt 
and zealously advocated the cause of the colonies. Hildreth's Hist, of 
the U. S., vol. II, 474-476, 5.S9, 540, 549-552. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, April 7, 1760. 

8 Council Journal, April 16, 1760. * Johnson's Traditions, 61. 

345 



346 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

On the 1st of April, three days before Governor Lyttle- 
ton embarked, the ship Albany, with six transports, arrived 
at Charlestown from New York, having on board a force 
of twelve hundred men to act against the Cherokees, sent 
by Major General Amherst, who had chief command of the 
British forces in America. This force was under the com- 
mand of Colonel Montgomery,^ and consisted of the 77th 
Regiment of Foot, called the Royal Scots, and his own 
Regiment of Highlanders. The latter were to remain in 
garrison at Charlestown. On the 4th the transports, with 
the troops which were to operate against the Indians, 
sailed up Cooper River to Mr. Brailsford's plantation, 
whence they marched to iMonck's Corner, where they 
awaited the collection of wagons for their baggage and 
supplies. 2 

Lieutenant Governor Bull did not, however, sit idly rest- 
ing alone upon the protection of this British force sent to 
his assistance. He applied to the neighboring provinces 
of North Carolina and Virginia for assistance, and himself 
raised seven troops of Rangers to protect the frontier, and 
to cooperate with the regulars in carrying on offensive 
operations in the Indian territory. Great was the joy of 
the province upon the arrival of these troops — the first 
British soldiers, with the exception of Oglethorpe's Regi- 
ment, raised by him for special service in Georgia, seen in 
South Carolina in the ninety years since the province was 
founded ; but as the completion of the conquest of Can- 
ada was the grand object of that year's campaign, Colonel 
Montgomery's orders were to strike a decisive blow for 
the relief of the province, and return immediately to Al- 
bany. Nothing was omitted to forward the expedition. 

1 Archibald Montsomerie, who succeeded in 1769 to the P^arldom of 
Egiinton. Burke's Pcerar/e.. 

2 /6'o. Ca. Gazette, April 17, 1760. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 347 

unci several gentlemen of fortune formed themselves into 
a company of volunteers and joined it. 

Colonel Montgomery in a few weeks marched to the 
Congarees, where he was joined by the militia and volun- 
teers, and immediately set out for the Clierokee country. 
He marched with great expedition, and his vengeance was 
summary. The towns and villages occupying the beauti- 
ful valley of the Keowee were reduced to ashes, their 
magazines of corn consumed, some sixty to eighty slain, 
and forty, chiefly women and children, made prisoners.^ 
These settlements occupied the territory of the present 
counties of Anderson, Pickens, and Oconee in South Caro- 
lina, and Cherokee and Macon in North Carolina. 

Unfortunately Colonel Montgomery's orders did not per- 
mit him to remain and secure the fruits of his expedition. 
These he was compelled to abandon and to return to Charles- 
town, and in August he embarked for New York, but left 
four of his companies to cover the frontier. Montgom- 
er3^'s retreat sealed the doom of Fort Loudon on the Ten- 
nessee, which had been established by Governor Glen, and 
its garrison of two hundred men under Captain Demere. 
Famished with hunger, they capitulated and were allowed 
to march forth to return to Carolina. On the very next 
day they were surrounded. Demere the commander, 
three other officers, and twenty-three privates, — the exact 
number of hostages Governor Lyttleton had detained 
in custody, and who were slain by the soldiers, — were 
killed. The rest were distributed as captives among the 
tribe: And now occurred a most interesting incident in 
which Attakullakulla jiroved his fidelity and preserved 
the life of his friend Captain Stuai-t. This officer who 
had been second in command to Captain Demere — an offi- 
cer of great sagacity and address, and much beloved by 

1 Letter of James Grant, So. Ca. Gazette, June 7, 17G0. 



348 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

all the Indians that remained true to the British interest 
— had been spared his life, but was among the captives. 
As soon as AttakullakuUa learned this he hastened to the 
fort, and purchased Captain Stuart from the Indian that 
took him, giving his rifle, clothes, and all that he could 
command by vv^ay of ransom. He then took possession of 
Captain Demere's house, where he kept the prisoner as 
one of his own family, freely sharing with him the little 
his table afforded, while he sought an opportunity of res- 
cuing him. While thus a prisoner at Fort Loudon the 
accidental discovery by the Indians of ten bags of powder 
and ball, which the officers had buried in the fort, nearly 
proved fatal to Captain Stuart. But it was thought 
that his life at present might be more useful to them. 
Having secured this ammunition a council was called 
at Chote, to which the Captain was brought and put 
in mind of the obligations he lay under for the sparing 
of his life. He was informed by his captors that they 
had resolved to attack Fort Prince George, and to carry 
six cannon and two cohoons, which must be managed by 
men under his. Captain Stuart's, command ; that he must 
go with them and write such letters to the comtnandant of 
the fort as they should dictate ; that if the officer in com- 
mand should refuse to surrender, they would burn the 
prisoners one after another before his face, and try if he 
could be so obstinate as to hold out while he saw his 
friends expiring in the flames. In this emergency Atta- 
kullakuUa determined at once to effect the escape of his 
prisoner and friend. For this purpose he gave out among 
the Indians that he intended to go hunting for a few days 
and would take his prisoner along with him. In the 
meanwhile Captain Stuart urged his fellow-captives, the 
soldiers, to remain firm, assuring them they could not 
expect to be ransomed by the province if they gave the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 349 

least assistance to the Indians in their proposed attack 
upon Fort Prince George. AttakullakuUa then set out, 
accompanied by his wife, his brother. Captain Stuart, and 
two soldiers. Nine days and nights they travelled, shap- 
ing their course by the light of the sun and moon for 
Virginia, and on the tenth arrived on the banks of the 
Holstein River, where they fortunately fell in with a 
party of three hundred men, sent out by Colonel Bird for 
the relief of such soldiers as might make their escape that 
way from Fort Loudon. On the fourteenth day, reach- 
ing Colonel Bird's camp on the frontiers of Virginia, Cap- 
tain Stuart loaded his faithful friend and preserver with 
presents and sent him back to protect the remaining un- 
happy prisoners till they should be ransomed, and to exert 
his influence among the Cherokees for the restoration of 
peace. ^ 

Captain Stuart dispatched an express to Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, informing him of the disaster to the gar- 
rison of Fort Loudon and of the designs of the Indians 

^ Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. TI, 239, 242. Captain John Stnart 
probably came out with the Highlanders under Hugh McKay and Ogle- 
thorpe, who settled at New Iverness, Georgia. He is said, with his brother 
Francis, to have taken part against the Spaniards, and to have served 
under Oglethorpe. But he was not the Stuart who was left in command 
of Fort William, on Cumberland Island, during the Spanish invasion in 
1742. That was a Lieutenant Alexander Stuart. Until the Revolution, 
he successfully kept up hostilities between the Cherokee and Creek 
Indians, that the colonists might be free from their inroads. He became 
a member of the King's Council, in 1769, and one of the most active 
and dangerous of the Royalists. He married Miss Fen wick, a lady of 
one of the most prominent families in the province, and lived in hand- 
some style in one of tlie best houses in Charlestown — that still standing 
at the west corner of Tradd and Orange streets, lately owned by William 
Carson, Esq., now by A. Markley Lee, Esq. In this house was born his 
son, John, who distinguished himself as a general in the British army in 
the Peninsula, was knighted, and became Sir John Stuart. Johnson's 
Traditions, lOG, 109; Stevens's Hist, of Ga., vol. ?, 126, 193, 194. 



350 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

against Fort Prince George. Governor Bull immediately 
ordered Major Thompson, who commanded the militia 
on the frontier, to throw into the fort provisions for 
ten weeks, and warn the commanding officer of his 
danger. He detained the Royal Scots there, and made 
another appeal to General Amherst for assistance, and 
this, Canada now fortunately having been reduced, the 
Commander-in-Chief could the more easily afford. Colonel 
Montgomery, who commanded the former expedition, hav- 
ing by this time embarked for England, the command of 
the Highlanders devolved on Lieutenant Colonel James 
Grant, who received orders to return to the relief of South 
Carolina. Early in the year 1761 he landed at Charles- 
town, and went into winter quarters until the proper sea- 
son should approach for taking the field. ^ Lieutenant 
Governor Bull raised a Carolina regiment, and put it 
under the command of Colonel Thomas Middleton. This 
regiment and the expedition upon which it went were 
remarkable as the school in which several of the most 
distinguished officers of the Revolution learned their first 
lessons in the art of war. Its other held officers were 
Henry Laurens, Lieutenant Colonel ; John Moultrie, Ma- 
jor. William Moultrie, Francis Marion, Isaac Huger, 
and Andrew Pickens served as company officers. 

As soon as the Highlanders were in a condition to take 
the field Colonel Grant set out for the Cherokee terri- 
tories. When joined by the Provincial Regiment and 
Indian allies he mustered about twenty-six hundred men. 
On the 27th of May, 1761, he arrived at Fort Prince 
George, and on the 7th of June began his march from it, 
carrying with him provisions for thirty days. When near 
the place where Colonel Montgomery was attacked the 
year before, the Indian allies in front observed a large 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, April 4, 1701. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 351 

body of Cherokees posted upon a hill. An alarm was 
given. Immediately the savages rushing down began to 
tire on the advanced guard, but this being well supported 
repulsed them. Colonel Grant ordered a party to drive 
the enemy from the hills. The engagement became gen- 
eral and was fought on both sides with grea,t bravery. 
The situation of the troops was in several respects unfor- 
tunate and trying ; fatigued by a tedious march in rainy 
weather, galled by the scattering fire of savages who when 
pressed fell back but rallied again and again. From eight 
o'clock in the morning until eleven the Indians continued 
to keep up an irregular and incessant fire — sometimes from 
one place, sometimes from another ; but at length they gave 
wa}^ and were pursued. 

The army proceeded to attack a large Indian town 
which they reached about midnight and reduced to ashes. 
Every other town in the middle settlements shared the 
same fate. Their magazines and cornfields were like- 
wise destroyed, and the unhappy Indians who had been 
treacherously goaded into the war were driven to seek 
shelter and provisions among the barren mountains — their 
fields destroyed, their villages burned, their women and 
children and old men left to perish. 

Colonel Grant continued for thirty days in the heart of 
the Cherokee territories. Upon his return to Fort Prince 
George his men were so much exhausted in strength and 
spirits they were unable to march any further. He there- 
fore encamped at that place to refresh his army and wait 
the result of the heavy chastisement he had inflicted upon 
the Cherokees. 

Soon after Colonel Grant's arrival at Fort Prince 
George, Attakullakulla again came to his camp and sued 
for peace. Colonel Grant furnished him, and several 
chieftains who accompained him, with a safe guard to 



352 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

Cliarlestown, and Lieutenant Governor Bull called a 
council to meet him at Ashley ferry. Bull received 
Attakullakulla very differently from the way in which 
Lyttleton had received Occonostota. He took him by 
the hand as a pledge for his security while under his pro- 
tection. A fire was kindled, the pipe of peace was lighted, 
and all smoked together for some time in great silence. 
Attakullakulla then opened his mission, and, in a speech 
of great dignity and pathos, sued for peace. This Bull 
readily granted. 

Thus ended the war with the Cherokees, which had 
proved ruinous to them and disastrous to the colonists. 
After incalculable mischief was done to both parties, peace 
was nominally declared ; but the hatred now entertained 
by the Cherokees to the Carolinians could not be so easily 
overcome ; it continued to rankle in their hearts, until 
another opportunity for vengeance should arise, and when 
it did come they were not slow in seizing upon it. 

The people had welcomed the arrival of the British 
troops with acclaim, and congratulated themselves in 
the protection which they conceived the regular troops 
of England assured them. But upon the expedition 
under Colonel Grant, the friction which had arisen be- 
tween Oglethorpe and Vander Dussen, Braddock and 
Washington, again appeared here between this officer 
and Colonel Middleton, who commanded the provincials. 
The latter officer considered himself slighted and neglected 
by the British commander during the campaign, and upon 
their return the matter became the subject of angry dis- 
cussion in the Gazette and terminated in a duel, Colonel 
Middleton challenging Colonel Grant to mortal combat. 
The duel happily terminated without bloodshed, but the 
controversy left much ill feeling, and the incident was 
not without its influence in coming events, especially in 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 353 

regard to the question of quartering British troops upon 
the colonists which was soon to arise in the northern 
colonies whose action thereon was to be followed in this. 
The next Royal Governor of the province was Thomas 
Boone, who at the time of his appointment was Governor 
of New Jersey ; he had, however, been a resident of Soutli 
Carolina, and was the owner of an estate in the province. 
He was probably a relative of the family of Boones who 
had been long established in the colony, one of whom, 
Joseph Boone, has so frequently appeared in the history 
of the province both under the Proprietary and Royal 
governments ; but this is mere conjecture ; little is really 
known of his history besides the episode of his guberna- 
torial career. The time and place of his birth and even 
of his death are matters of doubt ; but it is believed that 
both of these events took place in England. It is sup- 
posed that he was the son of Thomas Boone, Esq., in the 
county of Kent, who died in 1749, and was related in 
some way to two or three of the name who held important 
trusts under the Crown. He was appointed Governor of 
New Jersey in 1759 while residing in South Carolina, and 
arrived in New Jersey on the 10th of May, 1760, but did 
not receive his commission until about the 1st of July, nor 
did he meet the Assembly until the 30th of October follow- 
ing, nearly a year after the date of his appointment. In less 
than six months from that time, April 14, 1761, he was 
appointed Governor of South Carolina. Leave had been 
granted him by the Lords Commissioners of Trade and 
Plantations to visit England before entering upon his new 
government ; but though relieved of the government of 
New Jersey by his successor on the 30th of October, 1761, 
he did not avail himself of it. In a letter of November 24th, 
from New York, he declared that the doubtful situation of 
South Carolina, to which the King had been most graciously 

VOL. II — 2 a' 



354 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAEOLINA 

pleased to promote him, had prompted him to waive mak- 
ing use of his Majesty's permission to go to Europe, how- 
ever detrimental this resolution might be to his private 
affairs.^ 

Governor Boone arrived in Charlestown on the 22d 
of December, 1761, and was received with honors. He 
seems to have made many warm friends during his brief 
career in New Jersey — a popularity which was attributed 
to his genial manners and supposed honesty of purpose 
rather than to his bearing and ability as a chief magis- 
trate. Returning to the colony in which he had pre- 
viously lived, with a reputation gained in New Jersey, 
added to the predisposition of the people to welcome 
to the government one whose practical experience they 
believed would fit him the better to understand their 
situation and appreciate their needs, the South Carolin- 
ians turned out to do honor to their new Governor. 
The Charlestown militia regiment was drawn up in 
Broad Street and Captain Gadsden's artillery was sta- 
tioned at Granville's Bastion. The forts and all the 
vessels in the harbor displayed their colors, and salutes 
of artillery were fired as he landed. He was met upon 
landing by two members of the Council, and passing 
through the two lines of troops he attended at once the 
Council Chamber where his commission was opened and 
read. Thence he proceeded to Granville's Bastion where 
his commission was read a second time and the artillery 
again saluted him. Then he made a formal visit to the 
Lieutenant Governor, who was confined by illness to his 
bed. After this his Excellency dined with his Majesty's 
Council at Poinsett's Tavern where an elegant enter- 
tainment had been prepared. In their addresses of 
welcome the Council and Commons both refer to his well- 
1 N. J. Archives, vol. IX, 188-307 ; So. Ca. Gazette, 1760. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 355 

known character of uprightness and ability, and ninety 
g-entlenien join in an address expressing their great 
satisfaction at his appointment, and declaring that if 
it had been left to them to choose they knew of no 
gentleman whom they would have preferred for their 
Governor.^ 

It was under such auspicious circumstances that Gov- 
ernor Boone entered upon the administration of his office 
in South Carolina. The doubtful situation which had in- 
duced him to forego his trip to Europe had been relieved 
before his arrival. Lieutenant Governor Bull's treaty 
with Attakullakulla had put an end to the Indian difficul- 
ties, at least for the present ; and the colony was in the 
happy and prosperous condition in which Governor Lyttle- 
ton had supposed it to be when receiving the flattering 
addresses upon his return from his military expedition. 
Bat these pleasing prospects were soon to be dispelled by 
the action of the Governor himself, whose conduct, belying 
all the fair hopes entertained for his administration, was 
to tend to wean the people from the Royal government 
and to prepare the way for resistance to its acts and ulti- 
mately to its overthrow. 

It will be recollected that the Revolution of 1719, where- 
by the Proprietary government had been overthrown and 
the Royal government established, was brought about 
in a great measure by the refusal of the Proprietors to 
allow tlie act of 1716, whereby a reform had been made 
in the previous election system, and voting precincts 
established in every parish, the conduct of the elections 
being intrusted to the church wardens. Under Governor 
Nicholson's administration in 1721 the act had been care- 
fully revised and another passed, settling the manner and 
form of electing members of the House of Commons, pro- 
^ So. Ca. Gazette, January, 1762. 



356 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

viding the qualifications of the electors, the manner of 
voting, empowering the church wardens to manage the 
elections, providing the number of representatives to be 
chosen and fixing their qualifications. This act had been 
from time to time further amended, principally in regard 
to the qualifications of representatives. ^ The Assembly 
sitting when Governor Boone arrived had been elected 
under the provisions of these acts. On the 25th of Decem- 
ber, three days after his arrival, his Excellency issued a 
proclamation announcing that his Majesty had been pleased 
with the advice of his Council to declare his disallowance 
of certain acts, one of them, that of 1759, amending the 
election law of 1721, — which amendments related only 
to the qualifications of representatives, — and that as the 
present Assembly had been chosen under the act of 1759, 
thus disallowed and repealed, he dissolved it and issued 
writs for a new election. 

The new Assembly met on the 22d of February and ad- 
journed for three weeks. Upon its reassembling, on the 
19th of March, 1762, the Governor sent for the Commons. 
He said that having had occasion lately to examine the 
election act of 1721 he had found it so loose and general, 
so little obligatory in prescribing the forms to be observed 
on various occasions that might happen, that he thought 
a new law absolutely necessary. He then went into a 
dissertation upon the subject, and in order that the 
endeavor of the Commons might not be fruitless he 
undertook to state to them the reason which had deter- 
mined the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations 
to disallow the act of 1759. The act of 1721 was no 
doubt a subject of sentiment and pride to the colonists. 
It was the embodiment of the law for which they had 
revolted against the Proprietors in 1719 and which had 
1 iStatutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 135-592 ; IV, 98. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 357 

been allowed them by the Royal government upon its 
establishment under Nicholson. 

The Commons heard the Governor and returned to 
their Chamber. They referred the matter to a committee, 
and on its report they returned the rather curt answer 
that "having fully considered the election act now in 
force, and not knowing or haying heard of any bad conse- 
quences from the method thereby directed for issuing 
and executing writs of elections, are of opinion that it 
is not necessary at this time to alter that law in these 
respects." 

Had Governor Boone possessed the amiability and tact 
with which he was accredited in his brief administration 
in New Jersey, he would have perceived that the subject 
was one upon which the people were sensitive and would 
have avoided unnecessary questions in regard to it ; but 
he seems to have determined to have an issue with 
the Commons in regard to this law. As they would 
not amend it to suit him, he undertook to criticise its 
working in the election of members, and thus com- 
plicated the question with another equally important 
and about which the Commons were likely to be no 
less sensitive, namely, his right to judge of the qualifi- 
cations of these members. 

The Assembly had been prorogued, and soon after a 
writ of election had been issued to the church wardens 
of St. Paul's Parish for the election of a member, upon 
which a return had been made by them that Christopher 
Gadsden had been duly elected. Mr. Gadsden appeared 
and qualified before the House on the 13th of September, 
1762, and by their order, as was customary, was sent with 
two of their members, Mr. Bee and Mr. Soramers, to take 
before the Governor what was called the State Oath — an 
oath abjuring all cognizance of the rights of the Stuart 



358 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

family ; but the Governor refused to administer the oath 
to Mr. Gadsden and summoned the whole Assembly to 
meet him in his Council Chamber. He then objected to 
Mr. Gadsden's election because the church wardens had 
not been sworn for that particular election. It appeared, 
however, that the church wardens had taken an oath 
when elected to that office that they would duly execute 
the duties pertaining to it, of which duties the holding of 
such elections was a part. It was claimed too that where- 
ever a representative body is known to the law it is invari- 
ably the final judge of the qualification of its members, 
and that in this instance the House had approved Mr. 
Gadsden's election. The Governor, however, not only 
refused to admit Mr. Gadsden's election, but dissolved 
the House of Assembly for their contumacy. 

The technical point raised by the Governor was certainly 
not without force. The provision of the act of 1721 re- 
quired that the church wardens — or in case there should 
be wanting church wardens in any parish, the persons 
named in the writs to manage an election — should execute 
the writs faithfully, " to which every such person shall be 
sworn by any one justice of the peace for the county," etc. 
Under this provision it seems quite clear that the church 
wardens were to be specially sworn to the discharge of 
these specific duties, which did not in fact pertain to their 
duties as church wardens, but were civil duties super- 
added by special legislation. But the act of 1721 had 
been in quiet and successful operation for forty years and 
the continued practice under it had sanctioned the cus- 
tom ; and even if the Governor was technically right, it 
was no part of his duty to stir up the matter, least of all 
in the way in which he did. His subsequent conduct 
induces the suspicion that he was rather on the alert for 
a cause of quarrel, especially with Mr. Gadsden. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 359 

In the ensuing winter a new election was held and a 
new Assembly convened of which Christopher Gadsden 
was again returned a member. The first measure of the 
new Assembly was a remonstrance to the Governor against 
the late dissolution of the preceding House, declaring 
that it would tend to deprive the House of Assembly of 
a most essential privilege — that of solely determining the 
validity of the election of its own members, and would 
produce the most dangerous consequences. 

They resolved that the power of examining and de- 
termining the legality and validity of all elections of 
members to service in the Commons' House of Assembly 
of the province was solely and absolutely in and of right 
did belong to and was inseparable from the representa- 
tives of the people met in General Assembly. That the 
Governor could not constitutionally take notice of any- 
thing said or done in the Commons' House of Assembly 
but by their report, and that his censuring their proceed- 
ings was contrary to the usage and custom of Parliament. 
That Christopher Gadsden, having been declared b}- the 
last Commons' House of Assembly a member thereof 
duly elected, and having taken the proper qualification 
oath, his Excellency the Governor's refusal, when re- 
quested by message from the House to administer to 
him the State oaths required by law, in order to enable 
him to take his seat therein, was a breach of privilege. 
That the abrupt and sudden dissolution of the last 
Assembly for matters only cognizable by the Commons' 
House was a most precipitate, unadvised, unprecedented 
procedure of the most dangerous consequences, being a 
great violation of the freedom of elections and having 
a manifest tendency to subvert and destroy the most 
essential and invaluable rights of the people, and to 
reduce the power and authority of the House to an 



360 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

abject dependence and subservience to the will and 
opinion of the Governor. 

The Governor replied to these resolutions, insisting 
upon his right to scrutinize the election of members in 
the exercise- of his executive power under the Crown ; 
and several communications having passed between the 
Commons and himself, on the 16th of December it was 
resolved in the House "that his Excellency the Gov- 
ernor having repeatedly and contemptuously denied the 
just claim of the House (solely to examine and determine 
the validity of the elections of their own members) hath 
violated the rights and privileges of the Commons' House 
of Assembly of this province ; and further that this 
House (having ineffectually applied to his Excellency 
for satisfaction of the breach of privilege) will not 
enter into any further business with him until his Ex- 
cellency shall have done justice to the House on this 
important point." 

But this action was not taken without strenuous oppo- 
sition by some of the Assembly, and Mr. William Wragg 
in a communication to the Gazette of the 5th of February, 
1763, gives his reasons for having opposed the resolutions: 
(1) Because there had been borrowed out of the town- 
ship fund (appointed for the encouragement of settling 
foreign Protestants among them) the sum of £54,000 and 
upward for the payment of Rangers raised during the 
Cherokee war. If no business were done, that fund could 
not be reimbursed. (2) An immediate check would be 
given to the application which their agent recommended 
should be made for a certificate of the forces actually 
employed in the province to be laid before the Lords of 
the Treasury for procuring a proportion of the money 
granted by Parliament for the several colonies. (3) The 
necessity of withdrawing the garrison from Fort Prince 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 361 

George and thereby abandoning the back settlers to 
the Indians. (4) The public credit must suffer, and 
(5) involve the province in difficulties and reduce indi- 
viduals to a state of misery because the Commons happen 
to be displeased with his Excellency's conduct. These 
grounds upon which Mr. Wragg acted were certainly 
strong and sensible, however much cause there was for 
just irritation at the Governor's conduct. But Mr. 
Gadsden took up the controversy and replied in a com- 
munication taking up seven and a half columns in the 
Gazette, which would fill a pamphlet of fifty pages of 
three hundred words each. This brought on also another 
controversy between Mr. Laurens and himself in regard 
to the matter ; and the war waged until a subscriber 
worn out with it writes to the editor that the Gazette 
of the 15th of February had come to his hands that 
day ; but that instead of being entertained with the 
weekly occurrences which he had always understood to 
be the end of that paper, he found himself engaged in 
reading a long and unintelligible controversy concern- 
ing a late unhappy dispute. He goes on to say that if a 
further vindication of the proceedings in that matter was 
deemed necessary, he sincerely wished that some impar- 
tial and judicious person had undertaken the task.^ The 
writer is very severe upon Mr. Gadsden's style, which 
certainly was not calculated to elucidate tJie subject, nor 
indeed was anything more necessary to a clear under- 
standing of it than the able report and resolutions of the 
committee adopted by the House on the one hand and 
Mr. Wragg's clear and concise objections to the course 
pursued on the other. 

South Carolina as we have seen, as well as the other 
provinces, had had agents in London for the purpose of 
1 So. Ca. Gazette, March 8, 1763. 



362 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAltOLINA 

representing the interests of the colony and of presenting 
to the proper departments of the British government any 
communications that they might he instructed to make to 
the coh^nial department and to the agents of the other 
colonies resident in London, and to execute any other in- 
structions that might be intrusted to them. This agency, 
as we have before observed, was certainly a singular 
institution. We have seen the confusion which was 
created and the evils which arose under the Proprietary 
government by reason of the various agencies, regular 
and irregular, which existed in the last days of that rule. 
There was now, however, but one agent, Mr. Charles 
Garth, who had been a member of Parliament, and who 
was regularly constituted and appointed by act of the 
19th of May, 1762, in the language of the statute "to 
solicit and transact the affairs of the province in Great 
Britain."^ But this agent, while nominally the agent of 
the province, and so it might be supposed an officer under 
the Governor and Council, was in practice strictly the 
agent of the Commons' House, and through iiini this body 
by a committee of correspondence kept up a regular chan- 
nel of communication with the government at home en- 
tirely independent of the Governor. And though these 
communications had — until Governor Boone's interfer- 
ence with one of them — passed through the Governor's 
hands with his mail, he was, or was sujDposed to be, in 
ignorance of their contents. Governor Boone's conduct 
interrupted this channel of communication. Upon one 
occasion he broke the seal of a communication from Mr. 
Garth and sent the letter to the House with an abrupt 
message ; this was considered as a breach alike of pro- 
priety and confidence, and no more letters from Mr. Garth 
came through him. It is difficult to conceive an insti- 
1 StatiUets of Su. Ca., vol. IV, 164. 



UNDER THE IIOYAL GOVERNMENT 363 

tution more calculated to excite distrust and suspicion 
and to produce complications between the executive and 
legislative departments of a government. It was of course 
resorted to upon this occasion. All the communications 
relating to the dispute with the Governor were sent by 
the committee to Mr. Garth, who was instructed to print 
them and to submit the whole dispute to the Ministry. 
The Assembly also adopted an address to his Majesty, set- 
ting out their unhappy difficulties with the Governor, 
maintaining that his assumed power of interfering in their 
popular election would not only violate the charter of the 
province under which they were prospering and happy, but 
would be destructive of their personal rights as British 
subjects. It is curious to observe how pertinaciously the 
colonists clung to the charter of the ProjDrietors, as still in 
force as far as their rights were concerned, though the 
government under it had been overthrown and the charter 
itself surrendered. This address was also forwarded to 
Mr. Garth and presented by him at a meeting of the 
British jNIinistry and by them referred to the Board of 
Trade and Plantations. The proceedings were also pub- 
lished by order of the House in both the Grazettes of the 
province. 

The House meanwhile adhered to their resolution of 
having nothing to do with the Governor, laid all his mes- 
sages and recommendations on the table, refused to pass 
a tax bill or to appropriate money for the salaries of the 
Governor or of officers, not even for their faithful agent, 
Mr. Garth. But there was one matter in which they 
could not carry out their theory of absolute non-inter- 
course, and that was in the qualification of new members, 
as the custom had always been that the Governor should 
administer the State oaths ; and it happened at this time 
that Sir John Colleton had been elected to fill a vacancy. 



364 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In questionable taste, as if to irritate the Governor, the 
House in selecting two of its members to accompany the 
newly elected member to the Governor and see him take 
the oaths, sent Mr. Moultrie and Mr. Gadsden, the person 
whose seat the Governor questioned. On the 17th of 
September Mr. Gadsden reported to the House that in 
obedience to these orders Mr. Moultrie and himself had 
attended Sir John Colleton to see him take the State oaths 
before the Governor at his own house, when Sir John in 
their presence informed his Excellency that he had taken 
the usual qualification oath in the House and desired his 
Excellency to administer the State oaths to him ; that 
thereupon his Excellency was pleased to ask Mr. Gadsden 
and Mr. Moultrie if they had any message to deliver to 
him from the Assembly ; that Mr. Gadsden had answered 
that he and Mr. Moultrie attended Sir John Colleton by 
order of the House to see him take the State oaths ; that 
his Excellency had replied that the House had no right to 
order any person into his dwelling house, and thereupon 
called his servant to open the door for Mr. Gadsden and 
Mr. Moultrie, at the same time taking Sir John by the 
sleeve and saying that if he had any business his Excel- 
lency was ready to transact it with him ; that thereupon 
Mr. Gadsden and Mr. Moultrie bowed and retired, the 
Governor literally showing them to the door. The Gov- 
ernor had certainly given a Roland for an Oliver. Sir John 
Colleton was admitted to his seat on his own statement 
that he had taken the State oaths before the Governor. 
But his Excellency was not satisfied. 

Four other members having been elected and having 
qualified before the House were sent by its order with 
Mr. Parsons and Sir John Colleton to witness their tak- 
ing the State oaths before the Governor. They returned, 
reporting that they had gone accordingly, but that the 



UNDEE THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 365 

Governor had refused, saying that he would not take any 
man's word, but would send for the Journal and see for 
himself, and then act as he should think proper. Upon 
this the House of Assembly resolved that his Excellency 
the Governor, by his treatment of the members of the 
House who waited upon him, to see several gentlemen 
duly returned members of the House take the State 
oaths, hath been guilty of new insults to, and breach of 
the privileges of, this House. 

Letters were now received from the agent in England, 
Mr. Garth, saying that the government there could not 
act upon the ex parte statement of the Commons ; but that 
leave had been sent Governor Boone that he might come 
to England to be heard. The Governor did not, however, 
accept the invitation, and the Board of Trade, awaiting 
his coming, would not proceed in the investigation. 

But Governor Boone at last gave up the controversy. 
Mr. Thomas Smith and Mr. Brailsford having been elected 
members of the House on the 6th of January, 1764, were 
sent with Mr. Pinckney and Mr. Drayton to offer to take 
the State oaths before the Governor, and to their surprise 
his Excellency, without further opposition, administered 
them. The Governor having given up this point, a mo- 
tion was now made to discharge the order of the 16th of 
December, 1762, to do no more business with him; but it 
was lost. Governor Boone then prorogued the Assembly, 
and upon its reassembling in May he attempted to renew 
his relations with the Commons ; but the House continuing 
firm in its refusal to have any intercourse with him, he 
availed himself of his leave of absence and sailed for 
England about the middle of May, 1764. Governor 
Boone was regarded as a dissolute man, and with him 
there sailed a lady who was not his wife. It is very 
probable that this social scandal had much to do with 



366 niSToiiY OF south Carolina 

the relations of the Governor to the gentlemen who 
constituted the House, and this, with the absence of 
any acknowledgment of mistake or regret upon his 
part, for the obstruction to the public business, or of 
any assurance that he would not resume his offensive 
course, induced the refusal of the House to resume their 
intercourse with him. 

Notwithstanding Governor Boone's conduct and the 
time wasted in his disputes with the Commons, the 
province received a large acquisition to its population 
during his administration. The immense territory which 
had been practically annexed or included within its limits 
under Governor Glen's treaty with the Cherokees had not 
been yet safely opened to immigration by reason of the 
French war and the attacks of the Cherokees under the 
French influence ; but the Treaty of Paris in November, 
1762, put an end in a great measure to this danger, as 
its stipulations gave security to the frontiers; his Christian 
Majesty ceding to Great Britain all conquests made by 
that power on the Continent of North America to the 
left bank of the Mississippi, reserving only the island 
of New Orleans ; and England having taken Havana 
from the Spaniards, that city was exchanged for the 
Floridas, thus at last removing that source of danger, 
which had continuously threatened and disturbed the 
province since its foundation ninety years before. Im- 
migration now began to pour into the upper country. 
The Scotch-Irish continued to come from Pennsylvania 
and Virginia, and from the latter State a large number of 
excellent and prosperous people came, seeking new and 
fertile lands, principally in the bottoms of the Congaree, 
the Wateree, the Broad, and the Saluda. Two large 
colonies came from European sources. 

A remarkable affair, says Hewatt, happened in Germany 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 367 

by which Carolina received a great acquisition.^ One 
Stumpel, a Prussian officer, induced some five hundred or 
six hundred Germans, Palatines as they were called, to 
leave their native country under certain promises which 
he had, or conceived that he had, from the British govern- 
ment. He was unable to carry out his scheme, and having 
got these poor people as far as England he fled, leaving 
them without money or friends exposed in the open fields 
ready to perish through want. A bounty of .£300 was 
allowed them, and they were assisted by public-spirited 
citizens of Londcju in their transportation to South Caro- 
lina. Two ships of two hundred tons each were provided 
for their accommodation, and provisions of All kinds laid in 
for the voyage, and one hundred and fifty stand of arms 
given them for their defence after their arrival in America. 
Everything being ready for their embarkation, the Pala- 
tines broke up their camp and proceeded to the ships, 
attended by several of their benefactors, of whom they 
took leave with songs of praise to God in their mouths 
and tears of gratitude in their eyes. They arrived at 
Charlestown in April, 1764, and presented a letter to 
Governor Boone from the Lords Commissioners of Trade 
and Plantations, informing him that his Majesty had been 
pleased to take the poor Palatines under his Royal protec- 
tion, and as many of them were versed in the culture of 
silk and vines, had ordered that a settlement be provided 
for them in Carolina in a situation most proper for their 
purposes. Governor Boone could do nothing, but as 
soon as he left the Assembly voted £500 sterling toward 
their settlement to be distributed according to the direc- 
tions of the Lieutenant Governor. That they might be 
settled in a body, a township called Londonderry was 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 269-272. Ramsay follows Hewatt 
verbatim, Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 17-19. 



368 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

allotted to them and divided into small tracts for the 
accommodation of each family, and Captain Calhoun with a 
detachment of Rangers had orders to meet them by the 
way and conduct them to the place where their town was 
to be built, and all possible assistance was given toward 
promoting their speedy and comfortable settlement. Dr. 
Bernheim, in his work on the History of the German 
Settlements^ locates the place of their settlement on Hard 
Labor Creek in Abbeville County. ^ 

In the same year Carolina received 212 settlers from 
France. 2 Soon after the peace of Paris the Rev. Jean 
Louis Gibert, a spiritual leader and popular preacher, pre- 
vailed on a number of persecuted Protestant families to 
seek an asylum in South Carolina. On his solicitation 
the government of England encouraged the project and 
furnished the means of transportation. Mr. Gibert re- 
paired to England and directed the movements of the 
refugees, who found it necessary to leave France secretly 
at different times and in small numbers. They were 
received by the Carolinians with great kindness and 
hospitality, and spent the summer in Beaufort, but in 
October following they returned to Charlestown and 
set out for the back country. The province furnished 
them with the means of conveyance to Long Canes, — 
the neighborhood of the massacre of the Calhouns, — in 
what is now Abbeville County, and vacant lands were 
laid out for their use. They gave the place assigned 
them the names of New Bordeaux and New Roclielle, 
after the capitals of the provinces from which most of 
them emigrated. To each head of a family was assigned 
a half -acre lot within the town and as many as 174 lots 

1 Hist, of the German Settlements, etc., in North and South Carolina 
(Bernheim), 165. 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 19. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 369 

were laid out as early as April, 1765. Vineyard lots, 
containing four acres each, were likewise granted and 
laid out adjacent to the limits of the town, and about the 
same time parcels of land of 100 acres each were 
given as bounties to each male and female adult. All 
these grants lay in Hillsborough township, at that time 
the only civil jurisdiction in this part of the province, a 
section of country about ten miles square lying on both 
sides of Little River and extending westwardly to the 
Savannah. In February, 1765, the emigrants had erected 
their houses and commenced to labor on their half-acre 
lots. The exposed condition of the little community 
rendered it doubtless alert on every rumor of invasion by 
the Indians. From the town to the mountains spread 
out an extensive tract of country through which the 
Indians in the few years preceding, as we have seen, 
had passed in their inroads upon the settlements below. 
From the remoteness of the white settlements the colony 
was naturally kept in constant apprehension of attack. 
The nearest neighbors were the small colony planted in 
1756 by Patrick Calhoun which, as we have seen, suffered 
so severely by the Indians in 1760. Upon a rumor of 
hostilities Patrick Calhoun had just raised the company 
mentioned of which he was commissioned captain, serving 
however without pay.^ Mr. Calhoun for some time sup- 
plied these people with provisions, for which he was 
afterward repaid by the Council. They were a pious and 
simple people among whom there were few idlers. With 
the hum of cheerful voices and the busy sounds of indus- 
try was mingled tlie once interdicted psalm. It was the 
intention of the promoter of this immigration to establish 
the culture of wine and silk, but, finding these less suc- 
cessful than was anticipated, they devoted themselves 
1 So. Ca. Gazette, Octobers, 176-i. 

VOL. II — 2 B 



370 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

chiefly to the raising of flax, Indian corn, and tobacco; 
but with some, silk, indigo, and wine were not wholly 
abandoned for generations. The Gibert family were most 
successful silk growers and long continued to produce a 
beautiful and useful fabric. Many of these people for a 
long time supplied their own cellars with wine ; the prin- 
cipal vintage was that of Mr. Jean Noble, an unmarried 
gentleman, the remains of whose cellar and the liouse 
above it, in which he kept a school, were still pointed out 
not many years ago.^ 

The Rev. Jean Louis Gibert was the grandfather of 
the great lawyer James L. Petigru. Among others of 
these emigrants were Moses Lelioy, Jean Bellot and his 
wife, Pierre Moragne, Pierre Lartugue, the Rev. Moses 
Boupition, Pierre Roger, Jean David, Pierre Covin, 
Captain Mathew Beraud, who is said to have been killed 
at the siege of Savannah, Joseph Bouchillon, and Jean de 
La Howe, the Hippocrates of the new region, as he has been 
called, who, having amassed a considerable fortune, made 
by his last will a magnificent donation for a public charity, 
which is still preserved. To him was given the privilege 
of naming the county which he did in compliment to the 
French colony, after a little time in the north of France — 
the scene of some cruel persecutions and frightful trage- 
dies in which the Huguenots were the victims. Hence 
the name Abbeville. To this colony the State of South 
Carolina is indebted for the family of Perrin, distinguished 
alike in commercial business, at the bar, and in war. 

Tlie German colony and the Huguenot emigrants com- 
ing up from the coast thus met the tide of the Scotch- 
Irish which had come down by the foot of the mountains. 

1 Address of W. C. Moragne, delivered at New Bordeaux, Abbeville, 
November 15, 1854, ninelietli anniversary of the arrival of the colony. 
Coll. Hist. Sue. i>f So. Ca., vol. II, 75, 103. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 371 

The retirement of Governor Boone left the administra- 
tion of the government for a second time upon Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, whose lot it seemed to be to stand ready 
to take up and sustain the government when the Royal 
Governor, who was sent from England to rule the colony, 
had brought it to the verge of disaster, if not of ruin. 
He addressed the Assembly, and harmony was immedi- 
ately reestablished between that body and the executive. 
The liabilities of the province were paid and peace and 
good will restored in South Carolina ; but not so in Eng- 
land as to the colony's affairs. 

On the arrival of Governor Boone in England he ad- 
dressed the Board of Trade and Plantations, exhibiting 
his repeated addresses to the Assembly to provide for the 
emigrants who were coming into the province to protect 
the frontier's settlements from the Indians, and to make 
appropriations for the public creditors. He represented 
that the House had taken unreasonable offence at his being 
thus urgent in the duties of his office ; that his zeal in 
executing the instruction of the Board and the commands 
of his Majesty while contending for the prerogatives of 
the Crown was the cause of these complaints against him. 
The Board having heard him very properly reported, 
blaming the Governor for " having been actuated by a 
degree of passion and resentment inconsistent with good 
policy and unsuitable to the dignity of his situation ; " and 
blaming the House for having violated their duty to his 
Majesty and his subjects of the province by totally inter- 
rupting the public business for so long a time — a conduct 
highly deserving his Majesty's Royal displeasure. They 
expressed no opinion on the constitutional question, the 
original cause of the dispute, the refusal of the Governor 
to qualify an acknowledged member of the Assembly ; 
but went on to recommend what the Governor had with- 



372 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

held, viz., the appointment of deputies to administer the 
State oaths to members elected to the General Assembly. 

Mr. Garth, the agent, appealed from this vote of censure 
on his constituents, the Assembly, and employed Dunning, 
the eminent English lawyer, afterward Lord Ashburton, 
to represent their constitutional right and justify their 
conduct ; but it is not known what, if any, steps were 
taken by him in their behalf. Before the dispute termi- 
nated the agitation about the Stamp act had commenced. 

Dr. Johnson, from whose Traditions we have taken 
much of the account of the controversy with Governor 
Boone,! observes very truly that there can be little doubt 
that Governor Boone's interference with the election of 
Christopher Gadsden was an exciting cause in South Car- 
olina for the jealousy of their public and private rights, 
and that these feelings were confirmed and strengthened 
by the countenance given to Governor Boone by the Brit- 
ish Ministry. Dr. Johnson gives the following names of 
those who took a prominent part in this controversy, and 
says that it cannot be doubted that this dispute roused in 
them, their families, and friends, that spirit of resistance 
which led to the Revolution, and carried them through it 
triumphantly : Benjamin Smith, Charles Pinckney,^ James 
Moultrie, Thomas Wright, Peter Manigault, Henry Lau- 
rens, Thomas Lynch, James Parsons, David Oliphant, Raw- 

1 Johnson's Traditions, 5, 13. This account is taken from a Ms. record 
of Christopher Gadsden, which has since been lost or destroyed. It is 
corroborated by the Journal of the Commons, which was also supposed 
to have been destroyed, but which has been found intact but wrongly 
labelled, and also by the resolves of the Commons, published in the So. 
Ca. Gazette by their order. 

2 This Charles Pinckney was a grandson of Thomas Pinckney, son of 
William Pinckney, and nephew of Chief Justice Charles Pinckney. We 
shall see much of him during the remaining years of the Royal govern- 
ment and during the Revolution. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 373 

lins Lowndes, Isaac Mazck, Thomas Bee, Christopher 
Gadsden, William Scott, John Rutledge, Eben Simons, 
William Roper. But it was Christopher Gadsden who 
took the leading part in this controversy, not only be- 
cause of the accidental connection with it which Governor 
Boone's unwarranted interference with his election gave 
him ; but because of his own individual character and 
ability — a leading part which he was to maintain through- 
out the struggle which was to follow. Some account of 
him, therefore, will be appropriate here in the commence- 
ment of the story. 

Christopher Gadsden was born in Charlestown in 1724. 
His father was Thomas Gadsden, a Lieutenant in the Royal 
Navy and the King's Collector of the port of Charlestown. 
Sent to England he received a classical education to which 
he added a knowledge of some of the Oriental languages. 
Returning from England as a passenger on board a King's 
ship the purser died, and Mr. Gadsden was appointed to 
take his place, which he held for two years. He then left 
the service and devoted himself with great success to a 
mercantile life, and like many other merchants of his time 
was also a planter. When Governor Lyttleton made his 
expedition against the Cherokees in 1759, there was not 
a single field-piece mounted in all Carolina. Mr. Gadsden, 
who was a member of the legislature, obtained the pas- 
sage of an act for raising a company of artillery. He 
was appointed Captain, and, as we have seen, accompanied 
Governor Lyttleton upon his expedition. He was Colonel 
of the first regiment raised by the Provincial Congress in 
1775, and became Brigadier General in the Continental 
service, but he could not stand the restraints of a military 
life and resigned. 

An aristocrat by birth and surroundings, Christopher 
Gadsden was at heart a democrat, or, more strictly speak- 



374 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ing, a republican, using that term in its best sense. He be- 
lieved in the people and the people's rule. To them upon 
ail occasions he appealed, and with them he acted, and 
they supported and followed him. We shall see him 
charged with being a demagogue ; but that he was not, 
for he sought not office nor position for himself. He was 
always ready to serve the people as a representative, 
whether in the Commons' House of Assembly or in the 
Continental Congress ; but he sought not place under the 
Crown, and refused the Chief Magistracy of the State 
when offered to him. His was, it has been said, the stern 
virtue which characterized the ancient SjDartan, tempered 
by the milder influences of modern Christianity. Meek- 
ness, however, was not one of his characteristics. Without 
vanity, he was dogmatic and irascible. Illogical and con- 
fused in his address, oral or written, he nevertheless had 
unbounded influence over the populace he addressed. ^ He 
was an agitator ; not a constructor. He was too impracti- 
cable for a statesman, for everything must bend to the prin- 
ciples and views he entertained. Settled and firm in his 
convictions, he could not give way, nor compromise what 
he esteemed right, though others entitled to his regard 
differed with him. He once described himself as Don 
Quixote the Second, and the description was not altogether 
unfit. His chivalrous conduct in his duel with General 
Howe was worthy of that noble if erratic gentleman, and 
so was his conduct when he remained a year in the dun- 
geon at St. Augustine rather than give a second parol to 

1 Josiali Quincy gives this description of Mr. Gadsden in a debate in 
the Commons' Hoiise, at which he was present, in Marcli, 1773. "Mr. 
Gadsden was plain, blunt, hot, and incorrect, though very sensible. In 
the course of the debate he used these very singular expressions for a 
member of Parliament, ' And, Mr. Speaker, if the Governor and Council 
don't see fit to fall in with us, I say, let the general duty, law, and all go 
to the devil, sir, and we go about our business.' " 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT oih 

the British authorities, they having, he considered, vio- 
hxted the first. We liave said that meekness was not one 
of his Christian virtues, but he abhorred vanity and osten- 
tation, and when he died he was buried in St. Philip's 
churchyard, and by his directions his grave was levelled 
to the ground — left unmarked by even a mound of earth. 
Such was the man who led the Revolution in South Caro- 
lina, and whose memory, though no monument marks his 
resting-place, is still held in honor and reverence, not only 
in his own State, but wherever the story is told of the 
struggle for American independence and liberty. 



CHAPTER XX 

The province of South Carolina had now arrived at the 
highest tide of its prosperity ; but already had the names 
of those who were to be conspicuous as leaders, soldiers, 
and statesmen in the great Revolution which was fast 
approaching, and which was to cost the people so dearly 
but to end in the indejDendence of the thirteen British 
colonies, begun to appear. It may be well before we enter 
upon the narration of that struggle in South Carolina to 
devote a few chapters to the progress the province had 
made in material and social development, the better to 
understand the nature of the struggle and to appreciate 
the motives and influences which actuated the parties to 
it in this colony, on the one side and on the other. 

From the settlement of the Royal government in 1729 
to the outbreak of the Revolution no colony Avas in the 
main better governed than South Carolina. Governor 
Glen as we have seen was restive under the growing influ- 
ence of the people, and the quiet but determined assertion 
of right against prerogative, which had found its way even 
into the Council, whose members were nominated by the 
King ; but still he was active in advancing the interest of 
the colonists, and rejoiced at the wonderful increase in 
their prosperity. Lyttleton, too, however unwise in his 
Indian policy, and however much of suffering he caused 
upon the frontier, and of expense to the colony by his un- 
successful expedition, had nevertheless governed the settled 
portions of the province wisely and well. As Ramsay says, 
the First and Second Georges were nursing fathers to the 

376 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 377 

province, and their parental care was returned with the 
most ardent love and affection by their subjects. The 
advantages were reciprocrj. The mother country re- 
ceived great benefits fi*om the intercourse, and the colony 
under her protecting care became great and happy. In 
South Carolina an enemy to the Hanoverian succession 
was scarcely known. 

Few countries have at any time exhibited so striking 
an instance of public and private prosperity as did South 
Carolina between the years 1725 and 1775. Despite con- 
tinued calamities of war, pestilence, fire, and flood, the, 
colony was increasing in numbers and growing rich. The 
white population had increased from 7333 in 1733 to 
25,000 in 1748, and to 40,000 in 1765.1 On the 30th 
of March, 1770, Lieutenant Governor Bull reports to the 
Board of Trade that the number of negroes returned in 
the last tax was 75,178, and that the militia had increased 
to 10,000 men, who were divided into ten regiments, which 
would indicate a population of 50,000 whites, and by 1773 
it probably numbered 65,000. ^ But by far the greater part 
of this increase was caused by the immense immigration 
to the upper part of the province. Mr. Joseph Kershaw, 
from a committee of the Commons on the proposed estab- 
lishment of new parishes for that region, reported that the 
parish of St. Mark's, that is practically the territory com- 
prising the present counties of Kershaw, Sumter, Richland, 
Fairfield, Chester, and York, contained at least one-third 
of the white inhabitants of the province. In the lower 
part the increase of negroes, both natural and by importa- 
tion, had been beyond all anticipation, and if at times it 
had been to some a cause of uneasiness, it was the chief 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. IT, 292; Vieto of So. Ca. (Drayton), 103. 

2 Reports of the Historical Committee of the Charleston Library Soc, 
by Benjamin Elliott, 1835, p. 10. 



378 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

source of the great increase in wealth. Governor Glen 
reported in 1749, that though the Duty act of 17-40 had as 
intended acted as a prohibition on slave importation, that 
the increase in the number of negroes had not diminished 
during its continuance. ^ The merchants of London had, 
however, taken alarm at the action of South Carolina and 
similar enactments in Virginia, and had protested against 
this interference with their business. One signing himself 
" A British Merchant," in 1745 published a paper which 
he entitled The Af7'ican Slave Trade, the G-reat Pillar and 
Support of the British Plantations in America. It is not 
to be supposed that the Lords of Trade and Plantations 
would be deaf to such remonstrances against the suppres- 
sion of so valuable a trade, so when Governor Lyttleton 
came out in 1756 he brought with him instructions to put 
a stop to this colonial interference with the legitimate 
business of English merchants and shippers. ^ These in- 
structions were repeated to Governor Boone when he was 
commissioned in 1761, and though the general Duty act 
of 1751, by which duties were laid on all imported negroes 

1 Documents connected with So. Ca. (Weston), 92. 

2 Their Lordships in the name of the King directed: " Whereas acts 
have been passed in some of our plantations of America for layins,- duties 
on the importation and exportation of negroes to the great discourage- 
ment of the merchants trading tliitlier from the coast of Africa ; and 
whereas acts have likewise been passed for laying duties on felons im- 
ported, in direct opposition to the act of Parliament passed in the tenth 
year of his late Majesty our Royal grandfather's reign for the further pre- 
venting robbery and burglary and other felonies, and the more effectual 
transportation of felons, etc. : It is our said pleasure that you do not give 
your assent to or pass any law imposing duties on negroes imported into 
our said province of South Carolina payable by the importers upon any 
slaves imported that have not been sold in our said province and con- 
tinued there for the space of twelve months. It is our further wish that 
you do not give assent to or pass any act whatsoever for imposing duties 
on the importation of any felons from this Kingdom into South Carolina." 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 379 

for ten years, expired just before Governor Boone's arrival, 
no attempt was made to renew it during his administra- 
tion. Immediately upon his leaving the province in 176-1 
an act was passed reciting the dangerous consequences of 
such importations of negroes as had taken place since the 
removal of the duties, and praying his Majesty that the 
Assembly might be allowed to impose an additional duty 
of XlOO current money on every person first purchasing 
any negro or other slave imported into the province, except 
those brought from any other colony in America by persons 
actually coming to reside in the province. ^ The act was 
not to go into force until the 1st of January, 1766, and then 
to continue for a term of three years. It was assented to 
by Lieutenant Governor Bull, as by its terms it was not to 
go in operation before the government in England could 
pass upon it. It was allowed by the Board of Trade and 
went into effect, but was not renewed. The result was 
that upon its expiration there was another influx of im- 
ported slaves. 

During the discussion of the non-importation agree- 
ment the G-azette of July 6, 1769, stated that upon an 
examination of the imports from the year 1756 to 1766 
it appeared that 23,743 negroes were brought into the 
province during that period, notwithstanding that dur- 
ing five of which years the general Duty act of 1751 
liad been of force, the medium of which was 2374 a 
year, — but if the last of these years was taken off — 
when 6701 were poured into the province in anticipa- 
tion of the high duty which was to take place the 
year following, and which did then put an entire stop 
to the importation until 1769, the medium was 1894. 
•' From the first of January last," continued the Gazette, 
" to the first of July no less than 4233 had been imported, 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 187, 188. 



380 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and many more were expected before the close of the 
year." The Gazette observes in italicized lines, ^'•This 
scarcely 7ieeds comrnent ; every 77iaris oivn mind must sug- 
gest the consequences of such eyiormous importation^ espe- 
cially at this ti^ne.'' This suggestion was acted upon, 
and the non-importation agreement then in force was, on 
the 22d of July, 1769, enlarged so as to provide that no 
negroes should be brought into the province from Africa 
after the 1st of January, 1770, nor from any other place 
after the 1st of October next, 1769. ^ There was a double 
motive doubtless in this resolve. The inliabitants were 
no doubt alarmed at the increasing number of negroes, 
and were ready to avail themselves of this opportunity of 
checking their importation, which had been prohibited by 
the government in England. But while this motive was 
most probably efficacious in the adoption of the resolution, 
the fact that this was a means of touching the pocket 
nerve of the British merchant in its most sensitive point 
was probably a still greater inducement to its passage. 
This the Board of Trade was likely to appreciate, for on 
the 6th of December, 1669, Lieutenant Governor Bull had 
written to the Earl of Hillsborough, his Majesty's princi- 
pal Secretary of State for the colonies, that since the 
1st of January, at which time the late prohibition had 
expired, 5438 negroes had been imported, who being 
mostly adults for immediate use sold upon an average of 
nearly £40 each. The Gazette, which carried on its war 
against the importation of negroes after the non-importa- 
tion agreement had fallen through, on May 31, 1774, states 
that the greatest number imported before in one year 
was 7184 in 1765, which it says is 4457 less than have 
arrived the present year. In 1773, therefore, the importa- 

1 So. Ca. Gazette of July, 1769. Also So. Ca. and Am. Gazette of 
same date. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 881 

tion had reached the figures of 11,641. The next greatest 
numbers imported in a year, it says, were 4865 in 1772, 
4612 in 1769, and 3740 in 1760. The whole number of 
slaves imported from the 1st of January, 1753, to the 1st 
of January, 1773, it states to have been 43,695. 

It was because of the climatic differences between New 
York and South Carolina, observes Bancroft, that one 
ceased to be, while the other remained a slave State. It 
turned out ultimately to have been the misfortune of 
South Carolina not only that her climate suited the negro 
race, but that rice — an article for foreign commerce as 
well as of home consumption — was found capable of pro- 
duction by negro labor at great profit, and that too in 
portions of her territory in which the white man could 
not continuously live. This made Charlestown an em- 
porium of the trade which the English merchants were so 
vigorously prosecuting under the protection of the British 
government. 

The celebrated " Somerset " or " The Negro Case," as 
it was called, was decided by Lord Mansfield and the 
Court of King's Bench with great reluctance in 1771. ^ 
His Lordship sought to avoid a decision, holding the case 
over in the hope that some arrangement might be reached 
whereby he might be relieved of the responsibility. " If 
the parties will have judgment," said his Lordship at last, 
^''jiat justitia mat coeluni, let justice be done, whatever 
may be the consequences. .£50 a head may not be a 
high price ; then a loss follows of above .£700,000," etc. 
This decision released Somerset technically ; it did noth- 
ing more. The case was decided by the King's Bench 
alone. It was not heard before all the judges as was 
usual in habeas corpus cases, nor was it taken to the 
House of Lords, the supreme court of judicature of' the 

1 "The Negro Case," State Trials, vol. XX, 1-82. 



382 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Kingdom. It was, however, acquiesced in by the nation, 
and has since been regarded as the law of the hmd. It 
was nevertheless a most extraordinary decision in view 
of the well-known historical facts and previous decisions 
of the courts of England, and the recent Royal instruc- 
tions to the colonial Governors to prevent the provincial 
legislatures from interfering to suppress the trade in negro 
slaves. If the decision of Lord Mansfield put an end to 
the holding of slaves in bondage in England, it did nothing 
more. It did not in the least relieve the mother country 
of the responsibility for slavery in the colonies. It was 
admitted in that case that by the laws of the Britisli- 
American colonies slavery existed, and was recognized 
by the laws of England as so existing. " The question 
before the court," said Lord Mansfield, " was whether 
any dominion, authority, or coercion can be exercised in 
this country (England) on a slave according to the Ameri- 
can laws.'''' The bald question was whether slavery could 
be recognized to exist under the same government in the 
colonies and not in England itself. It was, as we have 
seen, the fundamental law of all the colonies that these 
laws should not be repugnant nor contrary to the laws 
of England. This was expressly prescribed in all their 
charters. If, tlierefore, slavery was contrary and repug- 
nant to the laws of England, it could not be legal in the 
colonies. So plain is this proposition that Hildreth, the 
historian, has adduced the result that slavery was never 
legal in the colonies themselves.^ This is logical ; but 
to such logical conclusions the courts of England refused 
to go. Lord Mansfield recognized this dilemma, and 
declared that the difficulty was extreme in adopting his 
course without adopting all of its consequences. But 
this his Lordship dared not do. There can be little 

1 Hildreth's Hist, of the U. S., vol. II, 275. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 383 

doubt that had the alternative been pressed upon the 
Court of King's Bench that its decision would abolish 
slavery in the colonies as well as in England, Somerset 
would never have been declared free. 

The merchants and manufacturers in England clamored 
for protection to the slave trade which opened to them 
the African market. Parliament, by repeated declarations 
and statutes, had declared the trade lawful, beneficial, and 
advantageous to the Kingdom and the colonies.^ The 
entire number of slaves exported from Africa prior to 
1776 is said to have been at the lowest estimate 3,250,000. 
More than one-half of these were carried in English ships, 
and the prohts of the traffic to English merchants is re- 
ported to have been at least $400,000,000. In the year 
1771, the very year in which the Somerset decision was 
made, there sailed from England alone 192 shi^DS provided 
for the exportation of 47,146 slaves.^ No government 
could have stood which declared against this trade. 

We have seen that two of the greatest lawyers of Eng- 
land, Talbot and Yorke, both afterward Lord Chancellors, 
the latter celebrated as Lord Hardwicke, had given their 
opinions w4ien Attorney and Solicitor General respectively, 
maintaining the legality of the institution of slavery and 
protecting it against the apprehended effect of Christian 
baptism. Chief Justice Holt, it is true, is reported to 
have lield in 1702, " that as soon as a negro comes into 
England he becomes free."^ But as Lord Chancellor 
Hardwicke pointed out in another case, Pearne v. Linle, 
before cited,* that was a mere dictum — it was not the 



1 Bancroft (ed. 1883), vol. II, 278. 

2 Cobb on Slavery, cliv, citing 3 Bancroft, 411, 412 ; Edwards's West 
Indies, vol. II, 868; Copley's Hist, of Slavery, 114. 

» Smith V. Broton and Cooper, 2 Lord Raymond's Reports, 1274 ; 2 
Salkeld, (i(JQ. * Ante, 49. 



384 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

point before the court — if the report of the case was 
correct, for the question before it was one merely of 
the form of pleading. The assertion, if made by Holt, 
was against the fact, if not against the law, for at that 
time large numbers of negro slaves were held in subjection 
in the British Isles without question as to the master's 
title. At one time the negro page was indispensable to 
the English lady in her daily walks through the city 
thoroughfares ; and for fear perhaps " the pure air of 
Britain " might engender some ideas of liberty, the collar 
known to the Roman slave was fastened around his 
neck, with the name and residence of his mistress neatly 
engi-aved thereon. At the time of the decision of the 
" Somerset case," 1771, it was estimated that there were 
from 14,000 to 15,000 negro slaves held in England, and 
it was probably to allow their masters an opportunity of 
getting some of them out of his jurisdiction that Lord 
Mansfield withheld his decision. ^ 

The case of Smith v. Brown and Coopei\ in which Holt 
is reported to have made the famous declaration that 
the air of England was too pure for a slave to breathe, 
is reported in the law books, upon reference to which it 
appears that the question argued before the court was one 
merely of special pleading, namely, whether a declaration 
in indebitatus assumpsit would lie — that is, be held good 
pleading — for a negro sold. And this is the report of 
the case and of what was actually decided. ^ 

"Holt, C. J. — You should have averred in the declaratiou that the 
sale was in Virginia, and by the laws of that country negroes are 
salable, for the laws of England do not extend to Virginia. Being 
a conquei'ed country, their law is what the King pleases, and we 

1 Cobb on Slavery, cxlvi, citing London Quarterly Bevieic, 1855, article 
"Advertising," also Granville Sharp's Just Limitation of Slavery, 34. 

2 2 Lord Raymond's Reports, 1274 ; 2 Salkeld, (300. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 385 

can take no notice of it but as set forth ; therefore he directed that 
plaintiff should amend and the declaration should be made that the 
defendant was indebted to the plaintiff for a negro sold here at 
London ; but that the said negro at the time of sale was in Virginia, 
and that negroes, by the laws and statutes of Virginia, are salable as 
chattels. Then the Attorney General, coming in, said they were 
inheritances and transferable by deed, and not without ; and " — the 
Report adds — " nothing was done." 

In 1704 there was another case in the same books {Smith 
V. Gould) in which Chief Justice Holt is again reported 
to have said that there was no such thing as a slave by 
the law of England, tliat men may be owners, and cannot, 
therefore, be the subject of property. But the only point 
decided, as appears by the report of tlie case, was a direct 
contradiction of that dictum ; for he held that while the 
action of "trover lies not for a negro in trespass, quare 
eaptivum suum cepit, plaintiffs may give in evidence that 
the party was his negro and he bought him." 

Out of these decisions upon these subtle distinctions 
in the old metaphysical technical pleading of the common 
law has been evolved the celebrated saying that the air of 
England was too pure to be breathed by a slave. This is 
all the more curious too, when it is recalled that Chief 
Justice Holt was one of the ten judges who declared that 
" negroes are merchandise and within the Navigation acts." ^ 
But Lord Chancellor Hardwicke Avho, as Attorney General 
Yorke, had given the opinion in 1727 that Christian bap- 
tism did not release a negro from bondage, in 1749 repudi- 
ated not only Chief Justice Holt's obiter dictum, but his 
actual decision as well. In the case of Pearne v. Lisle 
before quoted, he is reported as saying : 

" I have no doubt but trover will lie, for a negro slave is as much 
property as any other thing. The case in Salk, p. 666, was determined 

1 Bancroft, vol. Ill, 414 ; Cobb on Slavery, cxliv. 

VOL. II — 2 C 



386 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

on the want of a proper description. It was trover pro una ^thiope 
vocat negro without saying slave, and the being negro did not neces- 
sarily imply slave. The reason said at the bar to have been given by Lord 
Chief Justice Holt in that case as the cause of his doubt, viz. that the 
moment a slave sets foot in England he becomes free has no weight with it, 
nor can any reason be found why they should not be equally so when they 
set foot in Jamaica or any other English plantation. All our colonies are 
subject to the laws of England, although as to some purposes they have laws 
of their own." 

Until the decision in the " Somerset case " slavery was 
thus recognized as legally existing by every branch of the 
government of England, as well in England itself as in 
the colonies. It was so recognized by the King and his 
ministers by Parliament and by the courts. In that 
decision Lord Mansheld and his Court of King's Bench 
undertook to do what Lord Hardwicke had declared could 
not be done — to declare one law for England and another 
for the colonies. 

The government of England, with the sanction of the 
Church, was thus forcing upon Carolina and the other 
colonies an institution which with pharisaic zeal it was 
declaring itself too righteous to tolerate at home — an 
institution which from its very nature must incorporate 
itself with tlie political and social system of the country, 
and become so interwoven with its structure as to be 
eradicated only when in fulness of time its continuance 
must end by revolution, war, and desolation. ^ 

The great demand for negro labor was due to the 
enormous returns obtained in the cultivation of rice 
and indigo. Rice was then still grown in inland swamps. 
The* modern tide-swamp rice plantation, with its fully 
developed system of irrigation, thrashing implements, and 

1 Slavery in the Province of So. Ca. 1670-1770. by Edward McCrady, 
Am. Hist. Association, 18UG. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 387 

labor-saving contrivances, was not a colonial institution. 
The colonial rice culture was in inland swamps — some- 
times on high lands. This culture required not only an 
immense force, but one of men who could stand the 
malaria of the swamps. This the negro could endure 
with much greater safety than the white man. A vast 
system of drainage was necessary, and the statutes of the 
time are filled with " Acts relating to Rivers," providing 
commissioners for opening and clearing creeks, and cutting 
drains and canals. The remains of these works are to be 
found all over the lower country, now overgrown with 
brushes and trees, but still attesting the great labor 
bestowed in their construction. The abandonment of 
these works was caused by the introduction of the tide- 
Avater system of planting. As has been well said, one 
visiting a modern rice plantation can scarcely realize the 
magnitude of the work done in the provincial and colonial 
period ; the flail in the hands of the laborer was the only 
means of separating the grain from the sheaf, and the 
chaff was taken off by grinding in a crude wooden mill. 
A rude mortar made of a pine stump to contain a bushel 
or less of grain, with a pestle of seasoned lightwood in the 
hands of a laborer, was the only contrivance in use through 
long years to clean the grain for market. So slow was 
this process that the task for a male laborer was six pecks 
a day, and for a female laborer four pecks a day, with 
their half-acre field task. In every rice neighborhood or 
hirge plantation there was a cooper shop. The pine staves 
and oak hoops were cut and split near by, made into 
barrels, the rice jDacked in them, and hauled on wooden 
sleds by oxen to the nearest watercourse, then loaded on 
sloops and sent to Charlestown. The culture of the river 
swamp land was begun as early as 1758 on Winyah Bay, 
but at the period of which we now write it had not made 



388 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

any great progress. It was not until after the Revolution 
that the complete change was effected. ^ 

We have seen that as early as 1691 an act of Assembly 
conferred a reward upon Peter Jacob Guerard, inventor 
of a pendulum machine for "husking rice."^ The legis- 
lature continued to offer rewards for the invention of rice 
mills, but without obtaining adequate results. In 1712 a 
reward of £100 was offered to any one who would "make 
it appear by a mathematical demonstration that the mills 
now used for beating rice are improvable, and not only 
make the mathematical demonstration, but build a mill or 
mills so improved for himself or some other. "^ In 1729 
John Cuthbert petitioned the General Assembly, stating 
that he had invented and discovered certain implements 
for the better preparing and cultivating rice, indigo, and 
grain planted in rows, that is to say, ploughs or horse 
hoes, hand hoes, and pickers which would probably prove 
advantageous and beneficial to the province, whereupon the 
General Assembly granted him an exclusive right or patent 
to make them for the term of fourteen years.* Governor 
Glen, it will be recollected, reported in 1749 that rice was 
then threshed with ease by a very simple machine — a 
wind fan, then lately invented and found to be a great 
improvement. We have been able to find nothing further 
in regard to this machine. It does not appear, however, 
to have proved as efficient as Governor Glen supposed, for 
as late as 1768 the Assembly appropriated £3500 currency, 
i.e. about £500 sterling for a machine for pounding rice 
invented by George Veitch.^ The improved rice mills 
run by water ; the invention of Mr. Jonathan Lucas was 

1 Hon. W. A. Courtenay, Centennial Address, Year Book City of 
CharlPSton:i8S3, 397-399. 

2 Ilht. of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 340. 

8 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IT, 388. * Ihid., vol. IV, 229. 

'' So. Ca. Gazette and Country Journal, July 20, 1708. 



I 

A\ 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 389 

nearly contemporaneous with the change in the cultiva- 
tion of rice from the inland to the river swamp. ^ 

But notwithstanding the crude methods of culture and 
preparation, with cheap negro labor and the virgin soil of 
the inland swamps, the culture had abundantly prospered, 
and, with indigo and the continuing exports of skins, the 
products of South Carolina were of immense value. The 
upper country was beginning to contribute its wealth to 
the province. On the 7th of June, 1770, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull reports to the Board of Trade that about 3000 
wagons came to Charlestown in one year from the hack 
country loaded with its produce. This estimate, he says, 
is not far from the truth as the account is taken at the 
ferries. 

These commodities were employing a large number of 
vessels in the commerce with England. On the 15th of 
March, 1765, the Lieutenant Governor reported that there 
were cleared during the last twelve months from Charles- 
town 360 vessels ; from Beaufort 40 ; and from George- 
town 24, — in all 424 sail carrying 111,310 barrels of rice 
and 545,620 weight of indigo. The Gazettes of the 6th and 
13th of June contain lists of shipments of rice exported 
from Charlestown from the 31st of October, 1767, to the 
6th of June, 1768, which are very interesting as indicating 
the ports to which it was carried, and the countries with 
which South Carolina principally traded. Governor Glen, 
it will be recollected, had reported in 1749 that the ex- 
ception of rice from the enumerated articles, so as to allow 
it to be shipped to all ports south of Cape Finisterre, had 
not proved as beneficial as had been anticipated ; that 
for ten years the Spaniards liad taken but 357 barrels 
annually. This trade had now improved so as to com- 

1 Hon. W. A. Conrtenay, Centennial Address, Tear Book City of 
Charleston, 1883, 435. 



390 



HISTORY OF SOOTH CAROLINA 



prise more than a fifth of all the rice exported. An 
analysis of the shipping list, published by the Gazette^ 
shows that this season there was shipped to England 
64,3401 barrels ; to the ports south of Cape Finisterre 
24,909 barrels ; to the West Indies 17,385 barrels ; and 
to the other American colonies, including Quebec, 3437|^ 
barrels.^ The barrel was worth from fifty-five to sixty 
shillings per hundred. It contained something over six 
hundred pounds ; so the rice shipped at Charlestown that 
year was worth XI, 799,655 currency or £257,093 sterling. 
A calculation made in June, 1768, of the value of the 
whole produce of the colony during the same time was sup- 
posed would exceed X 500,000 sterling, probably 12,500,000 
of our present money. The Gazette which publishes this 
statement observes, " There needs no other proof of the 
flourishing condition of the province nor of its importance 
to Great Britain than the number of shipping and seamen 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, June 6, 1768. 

Rice exported from Charlestown from the 31st of October, 1767, to the 
6th of June, 1768, both days inclusive, to the following jjorts : — 



Antigua, 


3549 


St. Eustatius, 


2236 


New York, 


367 


Augustine, 


165 


Figuera, 


1400 


Nevis, 


226| 


Bristol, 


4390 


Gosport, 


5698^ 


Oporto, 


6220 


Barcelona, 


1666 


Guadeloupe, 


2ii 


Poole, 


1653^ 


Barbadoes, 


1435 


Grenada, 


228 


Providence, 


63 


Boston, 


743 


Greenock, 


28 


Pensacola, 


121 


Bermudas, 


37 


Haverford-West, 


4941- 


Philadelphia, 


1005 


Cowes, 


34410| 


Honduras, 


30 


Quebec, 


606^ 


Cadiz, 


668J 


Jamaica, 


3381 


Rhode Island, 


263 


St. Christopher, 


, 2339 


London, 


13710 


Salem, 


4 


St. Croix, 


282 


Lisbon, 


14745 


Topsham, 


307 


Dominica, 


1187| 


Liverpool, 


1829 


Veana, 


448| 


Dunbar, 


606 


Leith, 


1107^ 


Vigo, 


1161 


Georgia, 


123 


Monserrat, 


258i 


Whitby, 


106 


East Florida, 


40 


Monte Christo, 


57i 


Total, 


109,070^ 


The total is here given as 109,070^, but there ; 


appears to be a mistake 


in the addition. 


It should be 1 10,072 i. 









UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 391 

constantly employed in transporting its bulky commodi- 
ties." A London paper, quoted by the Gazette of the lltli 
of April, 1768, states that the trade of the American colo- 
nies during this year was estimated at X 3,000,000 sterling, 
including the freight on the ships, commission to the mer- 
chants, and all other charges paid by the planters. Soutli 
Carolina alone contributed, probably, one-sixth of this 
amount. 

The value of this trade to England was ■ enormous. 
Indeed, it was estimated that of the net proceeds the 
planters and producers themselves did not realize more 
than ,£1,500,000, so the English merchants for the trans- 
portation and vending of the products of the colonies got 
at least half of all the planters and producers made. 
More than this, the commodities imported into England 
under the navigation laws, which compelled the products 
of the colonies to be shipped into England, wheresoever 
ultimately destined, to be again exported, added im- 
mensely to the trade. ^ The exports of rice continued to 
increase. From the 10th of October, 1768, to the 24th of 
August, 1769, there were shipped 116,715 barrels, and 
from the 1st of November, 1770, to the 10th of October, 
1771, 130,500 barrels.2 

We have been able to find no estimate of the value of 
the imports into Carolina ; but this was very great. 
Governor Glen in 1749 was unable to answer definitely 
the inquiries of the Lords of Trade upon this point. In 
general it may be said, he reported, that the quantity of 
British manufactures annually consumed by the inhabit- 
ants of the province seemed to be too great, and the sort 
of goods brought from thence too fine, and ill calculated 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, June 6, 1768. 

2 See Table of Exports of Rice from 1730 to 1770 in Year Book City 
of Charleston (Mayor Courtenay), 1880, 245-247. 



392 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for the circumstances of an infant colony, by which means 
we seldom follow that golden rule of commerce, — Let 
your exports exceed or at least balance your imports. 
" Plenty," he writes, " is often the parent of luxury, and 
it will perhaps surprize your Lordships to be informed 
there is annually imported considerable quantity of fine 
laces of Flanders, the finest Dutch linnens, and French 
cambricks, chintz, Hyson Tea, and other East Lidia goods, 
silks, gold and silver laces, etc. This keeps us long low, 
and tho it may have the appearance of being for the 
present benefit to the British merchants, yet as it retards 
our encrease both in people and wealth it consequently 
renders us less profitable to Britain, for the riches of all 
the colonies must at length center in the Mother Country, 
more especially when they are not encouraged to go upon 
manufactures, and when they do not rival her in produce. 
For these reasons I have always endeavourd to correct 
and restrain the vices of extravagance and luxury by my 
example, and by my advice to inculcate the necessity of 
dilligence, industry, and frugality, telling them that by 
pursuing these maxims the Dutch from low beginnings 
climbed up to be high and mighty States, and by follow- 
ing the contrary methods the Common Wealth of Rome 
fell from being the mistress of the world." ^ 

Whether the Carolinians had taken the advice of Gover- 
nor Glen or not, certain it is that since his time they had 
greatly increased in wealth. In a report to his Majesty 
by William Gerard de Brahm, Surveyor for the Southern 
District of North America, made in 1773, for the j-ears 
from 176-1 to 1772, we have much valuable and interest- 
ing statistical information in regard to the province at 
that time. 2 Lieutenant Governor Bull had reported the 

1 Documents connected loith So. Ca. (Weston), 84, 85. 

2 Ibid., 155, 227. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 393 

number of houses in Cliarlestown on the 30th of Novem- 
ber, 1770, as 1292, its population 5030 whites and 5833 
blacks, — domestic servants and mechanics, — in all 10,863. 
De Brahm reports three years after that " the city of 
Cliarlestown is in every respect the most eminent and 
by far the richest city in the Southern District of North 
America ; it contains about 1500, and most of them big 
houses, arrayed by straight, broad, and regular streets ; 
the principal of them is seventy-two foot wide, call'd Broad 
Street, is decorated, besides many fine houses, with a State 
house near in the centre of '•aid street, constructed to contain 
two rooms, one for the Governor and Council, tli' other for 
the Representatives of the people, the Secretary's office, 
and a Court room; opposite the state House is the Armory- 
house, item St, Michael's Church, whose steeple is 192 foot 
high, and seen by vessels at sea before they make any 
land; also with a new Exchange on the east end of said 
street upon the bay; all four buildings have been rais'd 
since the year 1752, and no expence spared to make them 
solide, convenient, and elegant. 

" The city is inhabitated by above 12,000 souls, more 
than half are Negroes and Mulattoes; the city is di- 
vided in two parishes, has two churches, St. Michaels 
and St. Philips, and six meeting-houses, vid, an Inde- 
pendent, a Presbyterian, a French, a German, and tw^o 
Baptists. There is also an assembly for Quakers, and 
another for Jews, all which are composed of several 
nations, altho' differing in religious principles and even 
in the knowledge of salvation yet are far from being 
incouraged or even inclining to that disorder which is 
so common among men of contrary religious sentiments 
in many other parts of the world where that pernicious 
spirit of controversy has laid foundation to hatred, per- 
secution, and cruel inquisition in lieu of ascertaining 



394 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAKOLINA 

thereby how to live a godly life. A society of men 
(which in religion, government, and negotiation avoids 
whatever can disturb peace and quietness) will always 
grow and prosper ; so will this City and Province whose 
inhabitants was from its beginning renound for concord, 
compleasance, courteousness, and tenderness toward each 
other, and more so toward foreigners, without regard or 
respect for nation or religion." 

Of the Carolina stable commodities he says rice is the 
principal, which is brought there to the highest perfection, 
and as such is known in all the European and American 
markets. The annual exjjort " amounts to above 100,000 
barrils, of which two contains 1100 wight, so that the 
whole makes out above 55 million wight of neat rice, 
worth in Carolina X 275,000 sterling, next to which is 
indigo, whose exportation comprehends no less than 
600,000 wight, worth in Carolina X 150,000 sterling, and 
the whole annual exportation may be valuated £637,000 
sterling. Above 300 topsail, besides small vessels, do 
yearly enter and clear out of this port, charged with the 
products and manufacturys of the province, for the North 
American and West Indian markets, but chiefly for Hol- 
land, the Mediterranean, and Portugal." ^ 

Josiah Quincy, who visited in Charlestown about the 
same time as this report, i.e. in March, 1773, corrobo- 
rates De Brahm's estimate of its elegance and commerce. 

1 Docnments connected loith So. Ca., 199, 200. See also Short Descrip- 
tion of the Province of So. Ca., etc., 1763 ; Carroll's CoJh, vol. II. 487 
Hildreth gives the trade between Great Britain and all the colonies for 
the year 1770, which he says was the average for the last ten years, at 
but £1,014,725 exports and £1,925,570 imports ; that of the Caroliiias — 
without distinction between the two — at £278,097 exports and £146,272 
imports. There are great divscrepancies between his ligui-es and those in 
the text ; but those in the text are contemporaneous, and must be accepted 
as true. Ilildreth's Hist, of the U. S., vol. II, 559. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 395 

He writes: "This town makes a most beautiful appearance 
as you come up to it, and in many respects a magnificent 
one. Although I have not been here twenty hours, I have 
traversed the most populous parts of it. I can only say 
in general that in grandeur, splendour of buildings, 
decorations, equipages, numbers of commerce, shipping, 
and indeed in almost everything it far surpasses all I 
ever saw or ever expected to see in America. . . . The 
number of shipping far surpasses all I have seen in 
Boston. I was told that there were not so many as 
common at this season, though about three hundred and 
fifty sail off the town, which struck me very greatly ; 
and the new exchange, which fronted the place of my 
landing, made a very handsome appearance." ^ We must 
remember, however, that the vessels were very small in 
tonnage as compared with the ships of the present day. 
They did not probably average 500 tons burden. Yet 
they could carry very valuable cargoes. The G-azette 
of the 20th of January, 1772, mentions that the ship 
Beatifain, Daniel Curling master, which sailed the day 
before for the port of London, carried a cargo estimated 
to be Avorth £70,000 sterling, all the produce of this 
province except about 15,000 pounds of indigo from East 
Florida. This great trade was carried on entirely in 
English bottoms. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, it may be re- 
membered, had reported as far back as 1708, that there 
were not above ten or twelve sail of ships belonging to 
the province. 2 In the sixty odd years since the number 
had not been increased. The Gazette of October 25, 
1773, noticing the launching of a new ship at Hobcaw, 
a shipyard on the Cooper River nearly opposite Charles- 
town, designed for the London trade, mentions boastingly 

1 Memoir of J. Qiiinnj, Jr., 95. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 479. 



396 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that there were then no less than twelve Carolina built 
ships constantly employed in the trade between the port 
of Charlestown and Europe. 

De Brahm says that the cattle had so increased in the 
province that all pains would prove in vain to number 
them. The province was rather overstocked, and, in order 
to make room for the immense increase, great herds had 
been driven into the neighboring province of Georgia, 
there spread between the Savannah and Ogeechee streams 
since 1757, and there kept in gangs under the auspices of 
cow-pen keepers who move (like unto the ancient patri- 
archs or the modern Bedouins in Arabia) from forest to 
forest as the grass wears out or the planters approach 
them. The cow-pen keepers determined the number of 
their stocks by the number of their calves which they 
marked every spring and fall : if one marked 300 calves 
per annum, he reckoned his stock to consist of 400 heifers, 
500 cows, and 300 steers, in all 1500 heads besides horses ; 
this proves, he observes, that not even a cow keeper knows 
the true number of his own cattle. If they sell a stock of 
300 heads, they allow 124 cows, 80 steers, including the 
bulls, 90 heifers, and 6 horses, which they sell for £300 
sterling, and deliver them gratis on the other side of one, 
two, or three navigable rivers, according as the cow keeper 
is in want of selling. 

The production of both rice and indigo had increased 
from the time De Brahm wrote to the breaking out of the 
Revolution. For the year 1770-73 the rice crop had 
averaged 127,476 barrels, some of which had sold as 
high as 80 shillings currency, or 10s. 6d. sterling the hun- 
dredweight. Dr. Ramsay states that at the beginning 
of the Revolution the average quantity annually exported 
was about 142,000 barrels.^ The indigo crop had increased 

1 Ramsay's Ilist. of So. Ca., vol. II, 205. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 397 

in 1773 to 798,150 pounds, and in 1775 to 1,150,662 
pounds,^ which was selling at from 32s. 6d. to 35s. cur- 
rency per pound. The exportation of these two commodi- 
ties alone was probably at this time worth near £1,000,000 
sterling. With such commodities for sale the harbor of 
Charlestown was crowded with vessels, and long was the 
Gazette s weekly shipping list; 150 vessels being reported 
arriving and sailing during a week. 

This growing trade demanded increased dock facilities, 
and the same paper of March, 1773, says that besides the 
stupendous work then nearly completed by Christopher 
Gadsden at the north end of the town upon Cooper River 
(now Gadsden wharf, at the foot of Calhoun Street) and 
which was reckoned, it said, one of the most extensive of 
the kind ever undertaken in America, it was amazing to 
observe the other improvements that have within a year 
past been made and which were still going on. For in- 
stance, in less than three years another wharf equal to the 
best on East Bay, upon the same river, with a dock and 
other buildings, was nearly completed by Mr. Samuel Prio- 
leau, Jr., and still another by Mr. John Gaillard. In the 
same period, it continues, a grand assembly room had been 
built, and within six months past an elegant theatre es- 
tablished, which had handsomely supported a company 
of comedians. All that point, — White Point, — which for 
many years was almost a desolate spot, was nearly covered 
with houses, many of them elegant. In other parts of the 
town it was computed, said the Gazette, that within five 
years three hundred houses had been built, and upon Ash- 
ley River and South Bay, where there never was a wharf 
before, vessels of very considerable burthen could lie and 
load. In the same short period the Gazette had the pleas- 
ure to observe that several academies had been established 

^ So. Ca. and Am. Gen. Gazette, April 7, 1775. 



398 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for the education of the youth of the province who were 
very numerous, and that great attention was also paid 
to the fine arts. But we must reserve these matters for 
separate chapters. 

The town was growing and stretching out in all direc- 
tions. The finest residences were in Ansonborough, a 
suburb on Cooper River, the way to which was by a 
" path " from Governor's Bridge which crossed a creek 
running up what is now Market Street, at the intersection 
of Church Street. There Chief Justice Pinckney had 
built himself a mansion, which during his absence in Eng- 
land had been occupied by Governor Glen during his 
administration. There lived Henry Laurens in a beau- 
tiful cottage in the centre of what is now the square 
bounded by East Bay, Society, Anson, and Wentworth 
streets, the whole comprising a well-kept garden abounding 
in rare exotics and choice shrubbery, in which we are soon 
to see the mob rioting in search of stamps. Near him 
Thomas Lynch had built an elegant house of cypress from 
his plantation on the Santee. The General Assembly, 
which still attended to the municipal affairs of the town, 
had just directed the laying out of the tract of land west 
of the Glebe lands, that is, north of Beaufain and west of 
Coming streets, to which streets they gave the names of 
the chief actors in the great struggle which had then 
begun. Those running north and south were called in 
honor of Pitt, and Benjamin Smith the Speaker, John 
Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, and Christopher Gadsden ; 
those east and west were named Montague and Bull, in 
honor of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. 



II 



CHAPTER XXI 

Merchandise and trade were the foundation stones 
of most, if not all, the great fortunes in South Carolina. 
Beginning with the barter of hatchets, beads, and brightly 
colored cloths for Indian peltry, the earliest settlers soon 
took to selling Indian captives from Carolina to the West 
Indies, and buying thence in return negro slaves better 
adapted to labor and agriculture. From the exchange of 
Indian captives for negro slaves, they went on to exchange 
lumber and staves, pitch and tar, for sugar and rum. To 
England they sent the skins of wild animals, and in ex- 
change received clothing and domestic utensils. Then 
rice and indigo were grown and exchanged for all the 
manufactures of England. The proceeds of this trade all 
went into lands and negroes. 

Very few of the Landgraves and Caciques retained their 
baronies. During the administration of Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Broughton many of the leading men acquired large 
possessions, without many scruples, it was said, as to the 
manner in which they were obtained; but the bulk of the 
property, in the lower part of the province at least, had 
changed hands, and was held by those who had purchased 
with money earned in trade. So in the newspaper contro- 
versy in 1769 over the non-importation agreement, in 
which a writer taunts the merchants with acting entirely 
with regard to their own selfish interest, another writer, a 
merchant, retorts that many gentlemen of the first conse- 
quence and character in the province began to make their 

399 



400 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

estates in a mercantile way, and by degrees became great 
planters.^ The great trade which had now grown up with 
the exportation of rice and indigo, and the importation 
from England of manufactures of all kinds, not only for 
the growing colony, with its large slave population to be 
clothed, but for the Indians, the trade with whom was 
now opened to the Mississippi, and who took a vast 
amount of blankets and cloths, guns and ammunition, — 
and alas, of rum, — acquired for its conduct a large mer- 
cantile class. The merchants of Charlestown were mostly 
Scotchmen, and many of these returned to Scotland 
or held aloof when the Revolution began. The most 
prominent of the merchants during the period immedi- 
ately preceding the Revolution appear to have been Isaac 
Mazyck, Gabriel Manigault, Henry Laurens, Benjamin 
Smith, Miles Brewton, and Andrew Rutledge. The first 
three, it will be observed, were Huguenots. Short sketches 
of them will not be without interest in view of the promi- 
nent part they took i]i the affairs of the province at this 
time. 

Isaac Mazyck was descended from an ancient and re- 
spectable family, originally of Liege, Belgium, but which 
upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was settled 
on the Isle de Re, near Rochelle, in France. His father, 
Isaac Mazyck, whose mercantile operations were probably 
the first to entitle one to the name of merchant in Charles- 
town, had left his native country, his relatives, friends, 
estates, and all that was dear to him, and had fled from 
persecution to a strange land; and upon his arrival in 
Carolina had thus recorded his devout thankfulness in his 
family Bible: "God gave me the blessing of coming out 
of France and escaping the cruel persecutions ciarried on 
against the Protestants ; and to express my thankfulness 

1 Sv. Ca. GuzcUe, July 13, 17G0. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 401 

for so great a blessing I promise, please God, to observe 
the anniversary of that by a fast." Arriving in Carolina 
with a cargo of about XIOOO sterling worth of goods and 
merchandise, he had settled in Charlestown, and, selling 
his goods to great advantage, he embarked in trade with 
the West Indies, making several voyages to Barbadoes 
in 1688-89. He then extended his ventures to England, 
Portugal, Madeira, and to the other parts of America. 
The proceeds of these he invested in lands immediately 
adjoining Charlestown, and became possessed of a large 
part of what is now the city of Charleston, besides a plan- 
tation on Goose Creek and a large number of negroes. 
This emigrant was in his day the most eminent merchant 
in Carolina; but it is of his eldest son we must now more 
especially speak. 

Isaac Mazyck, the son of the emigrant, and the man of 
the times immediately preceding the Revolution, was sent 
to England for his education, and entered the British 
army as a Cornet of Horse, but soon left the army for 
travel, after which he returned to Carolina and entered 
into business with his father in 1723, and was about the 
same time elected to the Commons' House. Again visiting 
Europe, he returned to Carolina in 1726 with a cargo of 
goods for his father and himself. Setting up in business 
by himself in 1728, he carried on a large trade, and with 
great ease accumulated a handsome fortune of his own. 
In 1730 he was again in the Commons' House, and con- 
tinued there in every Assembly until his death in 1770, 
sometimes sitting for one parish and sometimes for 
another, as he chose to serve, being often returned from 
several at the same election. He was thus a constant 
member for over forty years, and w^as distinguished b}' 
his great abilities, loyalty to his sovereign, and zeal for 
the liberty of his people. In 1740 he was appointed an 



402 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Assistant Judge and sat as such for many years, and was 
also one of the church commissioners under the act of 
1706. 

Gabriel Manigault, another Huguenot, was the richest 
merchant during the colonial period of Carolina. Indeed, 
it is believed he was the richest man in all the colonies. 
He was the son of Judith Manigault, whose letter telling 
of the hardships of the Huguenot emigrants upon their 
arrival in the province we have quoted in our former 
work.i This letter breathes the same religious joy for 
deliverance from the Old World and hope in the New as 
that recorded by Isaac Mazyck in his Bible. "Let it 
suffice," she concludes, "that God has had compassion on 
me and changed my fate to a more happy one, for which 
glory be unto him." God had indeed blessed her pil- 
grimage, for now her son was perhaps the wealthiest man 
in all America. In the time of his prosperity he had re- 
membered those of adversity through which his parents had 
gone on their arrival in this country, and was liberal in 
his assistance to the newly arrived Huguenots. We find 
him in 1753 advancing £3500 to the use of poor French 
Protestants coming from Europe to settle in the province. ^ 
He had been quite an earnest mover in the early stages 
of the Revolution; and when no man was certain how it 
would end, he was able to aid the asylum of his persecuted 
parents with a loan of $220,000. His investments of sur- 
plus income were in rice and slaves, and for many j^ears 
preceding his death, although carrying on his business 
house, he spent much of his time on his plantation. He 
was a planter as well as a merchant, and owned negroes ; 
but though he had many solicitations to engage in the 
slave ti'ade, which was preeminently lucrative, he declined 

1 Hist, of So. Cn. under Prop. fkiv. (McCrady), 320. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 5. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 403 

all agency in transferring the subjects of that trade from 
the land of their nativity to a foreign country. He was 
nevertheless no advocate for emancipating those which 
were already in Carolina. His own slaves were treated 
with the greatest humanity, as their wonderful increase 
fully attested. In an examination in the year 1790 before 
a committee of the House of Commons in England, ap- 
pointed to inquire into the treatment of slaves in the 
British colonies, it was given in evidence that in thirty- 
eight years a part of the slaves of Gabriel Manigault had 
increased in the low country of Carolina from 86 to 270 
without any aid from purcliases other than replacing 12 
or 14 old slaves with the same number of young ones. 

Mr. Manigault was Treasurer of the province and for 
some time a Representative of Charlestown in the Com- 
mons' House. Though he never courted popularity, he 
was so much a favorite that in a contested election the 
mechanics walked in procession to the place of voting and 
by their unanimous ballot turned the election in his favor. 
He was active in all public enterprises, especially in the 
attempts to introduce the making of silk and wine in 
Carolina. He was for several years the Vice President of 
the Library Society, the Governor for the time being the 
President. In this society he was so much interested that 
he leased to them, free of expense for twenty-one years, the 
upper rooms of two adjoining tenements belonging to him, 
which were thrown into one, and formed a spacious apart- 
ment for their books and for the Librarian. 

At tlie commencement of the Revolution he was beyond 
the age of military service ; but, as we have said, his 
pecuniary aid was not wanting, and he contributed liber- 
ally out of his great fortune. Nor only so. When General 
Provost made his incursion into South Carolina and ap- 
peared before the lines of Charlestown, in May, 1779, 



404 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

though Mr. Manigault was past seventy-five years of age, 
he determined that the place of his nativity should not 
fall without some exertion, however feeble, on his part. 
His distinguished son, Peter Manigault, of whom we 
shall see much in the controversy over the Stamp act, 
and who had had no little part in bringing on the Revo- 
lution, had died in its incipiency six years before; so 
equipping himself and his grandson, Joseph Manigault, 
then only fifteen years of age, as soldiers, he took the boy 
by the hand to the lines in the face of the enemy, from 
whom an attack was every moment expected, and offered 
their services in defence of the city.^ It is not certain, 
however, that Mr. Manigault had ever committed himself 
to the independency of the colonies from England. Mr. 
Henry Laurens, when a prisoner in the Tower in London, 
was urged to return to his allegiance to the King, as his 
friends, Gabriel Manigault and Henry Middleton, had 
done;^ and it is probable that Mr. Manigault, like most 
Carolinians, as we shall see, was for a revolution within 
the Kingdom of England, but not for a separation from 
it. Mr. Manigault died in 1781, and left an estate which 
in its division was estimated at $845,000. His landed 
estate consisted of 43,532 acres, and his slaves numbered 
490. He left a legacy to the South Carolina Society of 
.£5000 sterling, from the interest of which the societ}- 
educated a number of children. His loan to the State 
was returned in depreciated currency, which realized only 
144,000. 

The Mazycks were the first and Gabriel Manigault was 
the richest, but Henry Laurens was the colonial merchant 
who rose to the highest distinction. Mr. Laurens was 
educated with Peter Manigault, and was regularly bred to 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 501. 

2 Mr. Laurens's Narrative Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 49. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 405 

merchandise. He also amassed a fortune far exceeding^ 
what was common in America. In the controversies be- 
tween the colonists and the Crown he sympathized with 
the people in opposition to the acts of the ministry, but 
was opposed to all violent measures. In 1765 he was sus- 
pected of having the obnoxious stamps in his possession, 
and was most roughly treated by a mob on account of it; 
and though called to preside at times at the non-importa- 
tion meetings in 1769-70, he was for peace and recon- 
ciliation with the government. Having lost his wife, he 
gave up his business in 1771 and went to Europe to super- 
intend the education of his sons. But however desirous 
of peace, he had no doubt as to the side he was to take 
in the open rupture between his people at home and the 
British government. He was one of the thirty-nine 
native Americans in London to petition the British gov- 
ernment not to pass the Boston Port bill in 1774. His 
utmost exertions were made to prevent the war; but find- 
ing that nothing short of the most degrading submission 
on the part of the colonies would prevent it, as he con- 
ceived, he returned to Carolina and took part with his 
countrymen. He did not, however, approve of the Decla- 
ration of Independence when it was promulgated. Indeed, 
he has left on record that he wept when he heard it read. 
He was nevertheless President of the Council of Safety of 
South Carolina from the time of the abandonment of the 
government by Lord William Campbell in 1775 until the 
establishment of the government under the temporary con- 
stitution of 1776, and was then sent to the Continental 
Congress, and soon after became the President of that body, 
and thus the official head of the united colonies. As such, 
to him was addressed the communication of the British 
commissioners sent to America in 1778 to submit the 
conciliatory measures of the government. One of these, 



406 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor Johnstone, brought witli him private letters of 
introduction to Mr. Laurens, and this led to a correspond- 
ence between them, which was highly honorable to him 
and indicative of his great influence in that most critical 
time. Mr. Laurens was sent as Minister to Holland, and 
in his voyage out was captured and taken to England, 
where he was committed to the Tower of London and held 
there as a State prisoner. His confinement there, and the 
attempts of the British government to induce him to 
abandon the cause of the colonies, and his suffering in 
the Tower rather than be recreant to his people, and his 
finally signing, with Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and John 
Jay, the preliminaries of peace by which the Lidependence 
of the United States was acknowledged, are parts of the 
general history of the Revolution. Without his knowledge 
he was chosen as one of the delegates to the Convention 
which framed the present Constitution of the United 
States, but he had retired from public life and declined 
the appointment. He died in December, 1792, near the 
close of his sixty-ninth year. 

Josiah Quincy, on his visit to Charlestown in 1773, 
mentions Miles Brewton as a gentleman of large fortune 
living in a fine house, and on whose sideboard, he says, 
was very magnificent i^late. Mr. Brewton was a merchant 
who had accumulated a larsfe fortune. He at first took an 
active part in the movements which ended in the Revolu- 
tion, and was chosen one of the Council of Safety in 1775; 
but becoming alarmed at the state of public affairs, he 
sailed for England in 1776 with all his family and most 
of his movable property. No tidings of the ship upon 
which he sailed were ever received, and his large estate 
fell to his sisters, Mrs. Motte and Mrs. Pinckney, whose 
husbands took an active part in the Revolution. 

Benjamin Smith besides being a successful merchant 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 407 

was Speaker of the House during the struggle with Gov- 
ernor Boone about the election laAV. He belonged to the 
same family as Abigail Smith, the wife of John Adams, 
either he or his father having removed to South Carolina 
from Providence, Rhode Island. He was the ancestor of 
the present Rhett family, they having changed their name 
to that of their maternal ancestor, Colonel William Rhett, 
the hero of the Proprietary government. 

Andrew Rutledge, a brother of John, Hugh, and Ed- 
ward, was probably the largest retail merchant of the 
times. The Crazettes of the day are filled with his adver- 
tisements of a miscellaneous line of goods, and scarcely a 
vessel arrived without an assignment to him. But though 
a brother of the Rutledges who so distinguished them- 
selves in the Revolution, and brother-in-law of Christopher 
Gadsden, he does not appear to have taken any part in the 
commotions of the time. He died, however, in 1772, be- 
fore the question had assumed a form requiring a definite 
answer. 

Mr. Robert Pringle, who was one of the Assistant Judges 
from 1760 to 1770, — one of those who joined in the order 
to carry on the business without stamps in 1765, — was 
an eminent merchant; and Joseph Wragg, the father of 
William Wragg, also an Assistant Judge and a member 
of the King's Council, was likewise a merchant. He dealt 
largely in the slave trade, as the Gazette mentions in 
announcing his death. 

John Edwards, a native of Bristol, England, was also a 
very rich merchant of Charlestown just before the Revolu- 
tion, and with Gabriel Manigault was one of the first of 
the wealthy men to advance money to the new government. 
He took an active part in the non-importation agreements, 
and was a member of the Council at the time of Provost's 
invasion in 1779, and strongly opposed the surrender of the 



408 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

town; indeed, Moultrie tells in his Memoirs that Mi 
Edwards was so much affected at the proposition as to 
shed tears. 

When the British took the city in 1780 Admiral 
Arbuthnot occupied a part of Mr. Edwards's mansion, and 
one day offered him any reward he wished if he would 
join the British; but this offer was indignantly refused ; 
and Mr. Edwards was soon after sent among the exiles to 
St. Augustine. He never returned home, but died at 
Philadelphia, to which city the exiles had been removed 
from St. Augustine. 

The merchants of Charlestown had established a cham- 
ber of commerce as early as 1774, for in that year we shall 
see the body appealed to by the Commons' House of As- 
sembly to sustain the credit of certificates of indebtedness 
issued by that body, thus to furnish a currency in the 
province, — a measure which the chamber approved, and 
which with its assistance was carried out. The next year, 
i.e. 1775, we shall see the body attempting to control the 
election of delegates to the Continental Congress, and in 
Well's Register and Almanac for this year, 1775, tlie 
charges on protested bills of exchange are printed as the 
action of the chamber. ^ 

Following the Indian traders, as the country became 
more settled, merchants began to establish themselves at 
the head of the navigable rivers. Among the earliest of 
these were the Kershaws. About the year 1755 three 
brothers, Joseph, William, and Eli Kershaw, came out 
from Great Britain to South Carolina, bringing with them 
considerable funds. In the year 1758 Joseph Kershaw 
settled at a place then called "Pine Tree, " on the east 
side of the Wateree, at the head of navigation. John 

1 See autographs of the members of this body in 1774. Year Book 
City of Charleston (Courtenay, Mayor), 1883, 421. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 409 

Chesnut, Duncan McRae, and Zack Cantey, each of whom 
were to establish a wealthy and influential family, were 
employed in his trading establishment there. Mr. Ker- 
shaw soon became one of the most extensive and influential 
pro[)rietors in that section, and it was through his influ- 
ence that the town of Camden was laid out. The county 
of which Camden is the seat is called Kershaw County in 
his honor. The land on which the town of Cheraw stands 
was granted to Eli Kershaw. There, at the head of the 
navigation of the Pee Dee, Joseph Kershaw, John Chesnut, 
Eli Kershaw, William Ancrum, and Aaron Lacock carried 
on a larfje mercantile business under the firm of Eli Ker- 
shaw and Company. The firm was dissolved in 1774, 
when they sold out the lands, stock, and negroes employed 
in carrying on their business. At the other end of the 
province Daniel de Saussure (the eldest son of Henri de 
Saussure of Lausanne, Switzerland, the emigrant who had 
settled near Coosawhatchie in 1731, where he lived and 
died) removed to the town of Beaufort, where he con- 
ducted the largest commercial establishment in the prov- 
ince out of Charlestown. 

Among the many points of essential difference in the 
condition of affairs between South Carolina and the other 
colonies, more especially the New England colonies, is that 
of the differing attitudes of the merchants of this colony, 
and those of the others in regard to the revolutionary 
movements. Mr. Lorenzo Sabine, in his Historical Essay 
vpon the American Loyalists, observes in his preliminary 
remarks that the documentary history, the State papers of 
the period, teach nothing more clearly than that almost 
every matter brought into discussion at that time was 
practical and in some way or other related to labor and to 
some form of common industry; and from this, later on, 
he says there can be little wonder, therefore, that the great 



410 HISTORY OF SOUTH "CIrOLIN 

body of the merchants of the thirteen colonies were Whigs ; 
that fourteen, or just one-fourth of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, were men bred to or engaged 
in commerce or the command of ships. But in the list of 
these merchant signers of the Declaration there are but 
two Southerners, and none from South Carolina. On the 
contrary the mercantile influence in South Carolina was 
opposed to the Revolution. Henry Laurens, it is true, 
took an active part when the struggle began, but he had 
nothing to do with fomenting it, and was openly opposed 
to the violence of the times ; and when confined in the 
Tower of London as a prisoner, he could truthfully write 
that during these times, at the peril of his life and for- 
tune, he had labored to preserve and strengthen the ancient 
friendship between Great Britain and the colonies, and 
that in no instance had he ever excited on either side the 
dissensions which separated them. Gabriel Manigault, 
too, helped his State with a great loan in its extremity; 
but we do not find his name in any of the proceedings 
Avhich brought on the struggle, and when the British took 
possession of Charlestown and set up a government, he 
returned to his allegiance, submitting to anything for 
peace and quietness in his few last days. He died, as 
we have seen, before the end of the war. Miles Brewton 
was a member of the Council of Safety in 1775, but he was 
opposed to separation; indeed, he was the choice of the 
moderate party for the Continental Congress as against 
Gadsden in 1774; but when independence was mooted, 
he gathered up all his goods and left the country. Chris- 
topher Gadsden had at one time been a merchant and was 
perhaps the only man in Carolina who from the very first 
was willing to accept the alternative of separation from 
England rather than submit to taxation wliich he deemed 
unjust; but his brother merchants assembled and went to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 411 

the polls in a body, taking their clerks with them to 
defeat his election as a delegate to the Continental Con- 
gress of 1774, so opposed were they to his view. It is 
true that John Neufville and twelve other merchants 
joined the General Committee under the non-importation 
agreement in 1769, but when, here as everywhere else, 
that agreement had been violated and the association 
fallen through, it was again proposed in 1774, the 
Charlestown chamber of commerce resolved not again 
to accede to any measure of non-exportation or non-im- 
portation whatever. John Neufville, however, remained 
steadfast in support of the Revolution, and was one of 
those who endured imprisonment and exile when the 
British took Charlestown rather than abate one title of 
liis claim to freedom. As late as August, 1775, the 
merchants of Charlestown were so opposed to the course 
things were taking that Mr. Timothy, Clerk of the 
Council of Safety, writes to Mr. Drayton, then on his 
mission to the upper country, to rouse the people there 
to opposition, that the merchants either had nominated 
or would nominate ten of their body to represent them 
in the ensuing Provincial Congress. At a previous 
meeting, he sneeringly adds, " They proposed fifteen for 
their quota, then twelve, and at last condescended to be 
content with ten." The position of the merchants of 
Charlestown in regard to the Revolution has been ac- 
counted for by the fact that so large a portion of them 
were Scotch, who everywhere were Loyalists; but this 
would but partially do so. The controlling cause was 
just that which is assigned by Mr. Sabine as operating 
upon the New England merchants, but in this case operat- 
ing just the reverse. It was a practical question of in- 
terest. The New England merchants were suffering under 
the Navigation laws of Great Britain; the Charlestown 



412 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



1 



merchants were prospering. It mattered not to them that 
Great Britain maintained a monopoly of their trade; that 
they could only ship their rice and indigo to England or 
to the south of Cape Finisterre. It mattered not to them 
that they could only do this in British bottoms ; as it was, 
they were prospering and growing rich. No such number 
of vessels were seen in any other harbor in the colonies. 
Why then should they, the merchants of Charlestown, 
against their interest, join the merchants in Boston who 
were contending only for their own ? Unlike the young 
lawyers returning from England, they had no political 
ambition to gratify. But whatever the cause, the fact 
is that the merchants of Charlestown generally were 
opposed to the Revolution, and so, as a class, were the 
traders in the upper country. 



CHAPTER XXII 

The first professional men to arrive in Carolina, of 
whom we have any certain knowledge, were physicians. 
In one of the vessels which sailed under Joseph West 
in 1669 came Dr. William Scrivener, deputy for Lord 
John Berkeley. The cost of his chirurgeon's chest and 
other instruments was X30. He took quite an active 
part in the affairs of the infant colony. i With the 
romantic story of Dr. Henry Woodward, the readers 
of the History of South Carolma under the Government 
of the Proprietors are familiar. ^ About the year 1685 
Anthony Cordes, un medecin^ reached the province. He 
came out with the French Protestants, and settled with 
them on the Cooper River, where he died in 1712.^ In 
1686 we find Dr. Christopher Dominick made a Cacique 
with a grant of twelve thousand acres from the Lords 
Proprietors ; * and in 1698 Dr. Charles Burnham was one 
of a committee of the Assembly which reported against 
tlie legislative power of the Landgraves and Caciques^ as 
an order. When the Yamassees rose in 1716 a Dr. Rose 
fell into their hands and was tomahawked and scalped, 
and left for dead, but happily recovered.^ 

The prominence of physicians in the early political 
affairs of the province under the Proprietary government 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 124-132, 134, 135, 153. 

2 Ibid., 83, 90, 91-122, 137-177, 346. 

8 Ihid., 337. ° Ibid., 293. 

* Ibid., 718. 6 Rainsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 164. 

413 



414 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

may probably be explained by the absence of the members 
of the other learned secular profession. For, as we have 
seen, it is not known that there was a single lawyer in 
the province before the advent of Nicholas Trott in 1698. 
The physicians being probably the most educated and 
intelligent of the colonists at the time were naturally 
drawn into public affairs. 

Soon after the establishment of the Royal government 
several physicians of learning and ability came into the 
province, and made for themselves reputations which 
remain in the memory of their profession to this day. The 
first of these to arrive was Dr. John Moultrie, of whom 
we have already spoken,^ who practised until his death 
iji 1771, and who was at the head of the profession in the 
colony. Next came Dr. John Rutledge, also before men- 
tioned. ^ Little is known of Dr. Rutledge's practice ex- 
cept that it was successful. The only mention of him we 
have been able to find is his appointment as surgeon of 
the First Regiment of Militia, organized by Lieutenant 
Governor Bull — the first — in 1738 upon an alarm of 
invasion by the Spaniards.^ He died early and is best 
known to history as the father of the illustrious trio of 
sons, — John, Huglx, and Edward. 

Dr. John Lining, another Scotch physician, arrived in 
Carolina two years after Dr. Moultrie. For nearly thirty 
years he successfully practised medicine in Charlestown, 
and was reckoned one of its most skilful physicians. His 
fame, however, was much more extensive than his practice. 
The latter was necessarily confined to the vicinity of his 
residence, but liis medical writings, his statical experi- 
ments and meteorological observations, which were pub- 
lished in the transactions of the Royal Society of London, 
procured for him a large portion of fame in Europe. His 

1 Ante, 141. 2 jua, 3 go. Ca. Gazette, November 2, 1738. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 415 

statical experiments were the only ones made to any ex- 
tent in America during the eighteenth century ; and his 
meteorological observations commencing as early as 1738 
were the first made in Carolina, and as far as is known 
the first made in the British colonies. He was one of the 
first experimenters in the novel subject of electricity, about 
wliich he corresponded with Dr. Franklin soon after his 
discoveries. He also, in the year 1753, published an 
accurate history of the yellow fever, which was the first 
that had been given to the public from the American 
Continent. 1 

Lionel Chalmers, still another Scotch physician, was 
probably the next to arrive. He was born in Cambleton 
in the west of Scotland and came very young to Carolina, 
and here practised physic for more than forty years. He 
first practised in Christ Church Parish, but soon removed 
to Charlestown. He made and recorded observations on 
the weather for ten successive years, that is, from 1750 to 
1760. He furnished a particular account of the opistho- 
tonos and tetanus which was communicated to the Medi- 
cal Society in London in the year 1754 and afterward 
published in the first volumes of their transactions. He 
also prepared for the press an account of the weather and 
diseases of South Carolina, which was published in Lon- 
don in 1776 ; "but his most valuable work was an essay on 
fevers in the year 1776. In this, says Dr. Ramsay, 
he unfolded the outlines of the spasmodic theory of 
fevers. He died in 1777, leaving behind him the char- 
acter of a skilful, humane physician and worthy, honest 
man. 2 

But the most famous physician of colonial times was 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 111, 481. 

2 Ibid., 112, 451. Dr. Chalmers's grave is marked by a stone slab just 
east of the chaucel of St. Philip's Church. 



416 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Dr. Alexander Garden. He was born in Scotland about 
the year 1728, and was the son of the Rev. Alexander 
Garden of the parish of Birse, in the shire of Aberdeen, a 
clergyman of high respectability who, during the rebellion 
of 1715, was distinguished by his exertions in favor of the 
family of Hanover and still more so by his humane inter- 
position in behalf of the followers of the house of Stuart 
after their defeat at Culloden. Dr. Garden received his 
philosophical and classical education in the University of 
Aberdeen at the Mareschal College there. He received 
his first medical education under the celebrated Dr. John 
Gregory, and studied also a twelvemonth in Edinburgh. 
He arrived in South Carolina about the middle of tlie 
eighteenth century and began the practice of medicine in 
Prince William's Parish in connection with Dr. Hose. 
Here he began his botanical studies ; but having lost his 
health he was obliged to take a voyage to the North for 
its recovery. On his return he settled in Charlestown 
and continued to practise medicine there for about thirty 
years. He was well acquainted with the Latin and Greek 
classics and was a considerable proficient in the knowledge 
of belles-lettres, in mathematics, philosophy, history, and 
miscellaneous literature ; but his attention when the 
duties of his profession permitted any relaxation was 
chiefly directed to the study of natural history and 
particularly to that of botany. Upon these subjects he 
made sundry communications to his philosophical friends 
in Europe. Linnaeus, the greatest botanist of his age, was 
among these and gave the name of Gardenia to a most 
beautiful flowering shrub. To extend his knowledge in 
natural history Dr. Garden accompanied Governor James 
Glen in 1752, when he penetrated into the Indian country 
and made the treaty with the Cherokees. In 17G4 he 
gave to the public an account of the virtues of pink root 



UNDER THE UOYAL GOVERNMENT 417 

and at the same time a botanical description of the plant. 
About the year 1772 he was elected a fellow of the Royal 
Society ; and after his return to Europe in 1783 he was 
appointed one of its Council and afterward one of its 
Vice Presidents.^ 

In a paper entitled Contributions to Annals of Amei'ican 
Progress and Medical Education in the Uiiited States before 
and during the War of Independence,^ Dr. J. M. Toner truly 
says the Carolinians from a comparatively early period 
furnished numerous valuable contributions to the litera- 
ture of medicine and natural history, and for some years 
led all the colonies in the study of natural sciences. 

Dr. Ramsay tells us that William Bull was the first 
native of South Carolina who obtained a degree in medi- 
cine ; but the Octogenarian Lady who wrote The Olden 
Time of Carolina, herself one of the family of Landgrave 
Smith, mentions that Landgrave Smith's son George,^ who 
was born in 1672, studied medicine and took his degree in 
Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1700, that is, thirty-four years 

1 Ramsay's Hist of So. Ca., vol. II, 112, 469. 

The following communications of Dr. Garden were published in the 
Transactions of the lioyal Society. Note to Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. II, 112: — 

The Halesia, first described by Dr. Garden, as appears by the letter 
of J. Ellis, Esq., F. R. S., read before the Royal Society November 20, 
1760. 

An account of the male and female cochineal insects, in a letter to 
John Ellis, Esq., read before the Royal Society December 23, 1762. 

An account of an amphibious bipes (the mud iguana or syren of 
South Carolina), communicated in a letter to John Ellis, Esq., read 
before the Royal Society. 

An account of two new tortoises, communicated in a letter to Thomas 
Pennant, Esq., and read before the Royal Society May 2, 1771. 

An account of the gymnotus electricus, in a letter to John Ellis, Esq., 
read before the Royal Society February 24, 1778. 

2 Publications of the Bureau of Education (U. S.), 1874. 

^ In an address before the Medical College of South Carolina delivered 
by the author of this work, it is stated George Smith was born in 1672, 

VOL. II — 2 E 



418 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

before Dr. Bull. And in some confirmation of this, his 
having chosen that profession, we find the Landgrave, who 
died in 1694, bequeathing to his son George " all of my 
instruments that belong to chirurgery, and one-half of all my 
medicines and one-half of all my books," etc. From which, 
by the way, Mr. Landgrave himself must have been pro- 
vided in a medical way. But it now appears that George 
Smith was not born in South Carolina, if his age is 
correctly given, as his father did not come into the 
province until 1687. We have no account of Dr. 
Smith's practice — if indeed he did practise. In the year 
1731 William Bull was graduated at Leyden, as we have 
before mentioned. Unless it be that George Smith was 
born in South Carolina, William Bull was not only the 
first native South Carolinian, but the first native American 
who received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. ^ He was 
a pupil of Boerhaave, one of the most celebrated physicians 
of his time. He defended, we are told, his thesis De Colica 
Pictorium before the University. He does not, however, 
appear to have practised his profession at all, but to have 
devoted himself to public affairs, in which we have already 
seen and shall see much more of him in the course of this 
history. But with his abilities, his gentle, kindl}^ yet firm 
disposition, and his remarkable tact, he must have suc- 
ceeded in the practice of medicine had circumstances not 
called him into public life. Indeed, Ramsay tells us that 
he is quoted by Van Swieten as his fellow-student with 
the title of the learned Dr. Bull. 

Dr. John Moultrie, son of the Dr. John Moultrie above 
mentioned, was the next South Carolinian who received a 

at Old Town on the Ashley, among the very first births in the colony; but 

this he has since been assured by apparently good authority is a mistake, 

that his father, Landgrave Smith, did not come out to Carolina before 1687. 

1 Dr. Toner, Publication of the Bureau of Education (U. S.), 1874. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 419 

degree in medicine. He was born in South Carolina the 
year after his father's arrival in the province. He was 
graduated in Edinburgh in the year 1749, and defended 
— as it was termed — a thesis, De Fehre Flava. He re- 
moved to Florida, of which he was Lieutenant Governor 
during the Revolution. When General Charles Lee pro- 
posed his expedition to Florida, immediately after the 
battle of Fort Moultrie, he asked Dr. Moultrie's brother, 
the hero of that victory, whether his brother being there 
as Governor would be an obstacle in his way to his tak- 
ing the command of the expedition, to which General 
Moultrie promptly replied that it would not. In a manu- 
script journal of Josiah Smith, Jr., one of the exiles from 
Charlestown in 1780, he complains of the coolness with 
which he was received by Governor Moultrie, considering 
that he, Smith, was the executor of Moultrie's wife's 
grandfather, and having in trust for Moultrie's children a 
considerable estate in South Carolina which he. Smith, 
intimates to the Governor would suffer great damage by 
reason of his detention in Florida ; but the hint was not 
taken, and Smith had to content himself with an occasional 
cup of tea at the Governor's, but with no intimacy. It 
was thus a curious coincidence that the two first native 
graduates in medicine from South Carolina should have 
adhered to the King during the Revolution ; and that the 
first should be the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, 
and the other the Lieutenant Governor of Florida. The 
coincidence is further carried out by the fact that both 
removed to England during the war and died there, them- 
selves in exile. ^ 

^ Dr. John Moultrie became Major of the British Regiment, known as 
the Buffs. His name is handed down by liis descendants in Oxfordshire. 
General W. G. de Saiissure''s Address, Cincinnati Society, 1885. Dr. Bull 
died without issue. 



420 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The eighteenth century, sa3's Ramsay, was more than 
half ehxpsed before the Carolinians seriously undertook to 
educate their sons for the practice of physic, or before any 
native American had established himself in South Caro- 
lina as a practitioner of medicine. About the year 1760 
a few youths were put under the care of respectable physi- 
cians in Charlestown, and after spending five or six years 
in the doctors' shops doing the duties of apprentices and 
reading practical medical books, were sent to pursue their 
studies at the University of Edinburgh and then came 
home invested with the merited degree of Doctors of 
Medicine. They were well received by their countrymen 
and readily established themselves in business. Their 
success encouraged others to follow their example, and 
soon a medical education became common. Between 1768 
and 1778 ten more natives obtained the honor of a degree 
in medicine. These were Isaac Chanler, Peter Faysoux, 
Thomas Caw, Charles Drayton, Tucker Harris, Robert 
Perroneau, James Air, George Logan, Zachai'iah Neufville, 
and Robert Pringle. 

For eighty or ninety years after the first settlement of 
South Carolina the practice of medicine was almost if 
not entirely in the hands of Europeans ; and even after 
that period, until the Revolution, nothing short of an 
European education was deemed sufficient to attach the 
coiitidence of the public to any medical practitioner. The 
first physician to break into this received opinion was 
the celebrated Dr. David Ramsay. Dr. Ramsay was the 
youngest child of James Ramsay, a respectable farmer, 
who had emigrated from Ireland to Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, at an early age, and by the cultivation of 
his farm with his own hands provided the means of sub- 
sistence and for the education of a numerous family. It 
is remarkable that a man in such circumstances should 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 421 

have departed from the usual course of the times, aud 
instead of employing his three sons in the usual offices 
of husbandry should have given to each of them a 
liberal education. They were sent to Princeton Col- 
lege, where they all received honors of that institution. 
William, the eldest, became a minister of the gospel, 
Nathaniel was bred a lawyer and settled in Baltimore, 
and David, coming to Carolina, became a distinguished 
physician, an ardent patriot, conspicuous in public life, 
and the historian, not only of South Carolina, but of the 
United States. 

Dr. Ramsay was boini in 1749 and took the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, at Princeton, in the year 1765, being 
then only sixteen years of age. After spending two 
years in Maryland as a private tutor he began the study 
of medicine with Dr. Bond, in Philadelphia, where he 
regularly attended the lectures delivered at the College of 
Pennsylvania, the parent of the medical school which has 
since become so distinguished. The celebrated Dr. Rush 
was then Professor of Chemistry in that college, and this 
led to a friendship between Dr. Rush and himself which 
was cherished by both and continued during their lives, 
Dr. Ramsay declaring that in his opinion Dr. Rush had 
done more to improve the theory and practice of medicine 
than any one physician either living or dead. Dr. 
Ramsay was graduated Bachelor of Physics early in 1772 
and removed to Charlestown in 1773. On settling in 
Charlestown he rapidly rose to eminence in his profession 
and general respect. In the revolutionary struggle he 
was a decided and active friend of his country and of 
freedom, and was one of the earliest and most zealous 
advocates of American Independence. In every period 
of the war he wrote and spoke boldly and constantly. 
From the Declaration of Independence to the termination 



422 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the war he was a member of the legislature of South 
Carolina. For two years he was a member of the Privy 
Council, and for a short period was with the army as a 
surgeon, and was among those citizens who were banished 
by the British authorities to St. Augustine in 1780. ^ 

Prior to the Revolution South Carolina was afflicted 
with three diseases, two of which were terrible in their 
mortality ; the third, though then at least less fatal, was 
more permanent in its effect. The first of these, small- 
pox, was not in any way peculiar to the province. It was 
as common and as fatal everywhere. The second, yel- 
low fever, though more probable of occurrence because 
of the nearer proximity to the West Indies, and of the 
greater business with those tropical islands, was, neverthe- 
less, not restricted to Charlestown. Indeed, upon its first 
appearance it was identified by reason of its existence in 
Philadelphia at the time, where it was well known. The 
third, country fever, was peculiar in its form and violence 
to the rice region of South Carolina, and was potent in its 
effect upon the social, as well as the agricultural, develop- 
ment of the colony. 

Dr. Ramsay says that the smallpox first appeared in 

1 Memoir of Dr. Ramsay by Hon. R. Y. Hayne, Preface to Hist, of 
U. 8. After the Revolution Dr. Ramsay was for several years a member 
of the Continental Congress and for a year was President pro tempore, 
during the absence of John Hancock from sickness ; and it was after tliis 
still that his principal literary and historical work was done. Among his 
works are : History of the Revohition in South Carolina, 1735 ; Sketch 
of the Soil, Climate, Weather, and Diseases in So7tth Carolina, 1795; A 
Review of the Improvements, Progress, and State of Medicine in the 
Eighteenth Century, 1800 ; Life of Washington, 1801 ; History of South 
Carolina, 2 vols., 1808 ; History of the United States, 3 vols., 1816; A 
Dissertation on the Means of Preserving Health in Charleston ; A Bio- 
graphical Chart on a New Plan to Facilitate Study of History ; Eulo- 
gium on Dr. Rush; A Brief History of the Independent Church in 
Charleston. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 423 

1700 ; ^ but as we have seen in a letter written, dated 
March 12, 1697-98, it is said : " We have had the smallpox 
amongst us nine or ten months, which hath been very in- 
fectious and mortal. We have lost by the distemper two 
or three hundred persons." This epidemic had caused the 
passage of " an act for the more effectual preventing the 
spreading of contagious distemper,'''' the first quarantine 
measure. 2 This act had been made more stringent by 
revision and amendments in 1712, and again in 1721 ; ^ 
but notwithstanding the disease had again been introduced 
in 1732, so effectual were the measures for preventing its 
spread that the disease had been restricted to tlie neigh- 
borhood on the Edisto, in which it had appeared. But it 
was soon to a]3pear again and become a terrible epidemic. 
On the 13th of April, 1738, a vessel arrived from Guinea, 
called the London Frigate, which was discovered after- 
ward to have smallpox on board, but not until several of 
the negroes imported in it had been brought ashore and 
sent, some into the town and some into the country. 
These were returned aboard again as soon as it was 
discovered that the ship had had the disease among 
its passengers, and it was ordered to fall down to Fort 
Johnson to perform quarantine.* Mr. Joseph Wragg, 
President of the Council in the absence of Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, issued a proclamation enjoining upon 
every one who had any slave sick with the smalljDox to 
send them to this vessel, and called upon all his Majesty's 
Justices of the Peace and constables and other officers, to 
take all imaginable care to prevent the spreading of the 
disease. But this time there was no checking its progress ; 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., 70. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. tinder Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 308, 513. 
8 Stattites of So. Ca., vol. II, 382 ; vol. Ill, 127. 

* So. Ca. Gazette, May 4, 1738. 



424 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

it spread fearfully among the people, and indeed to such 
an extent, as we have told elsewhere, that there was not 
a sufficiency of persons in health to attend the sick, and 
many perished from neglect and want. There was scarcely 
a house in Charlestown in which, before the disease had 
expended itself, there had not been one or more deaths. 

During the prevalence of the epidemic the Rev. Commis- 
sary Garden addressed a note to Mr. Timothy, the publisher 
of the Gazette, requesting him to publish Dr. Pitcarn's 
method of treatment, which he believed might be accept- 
able to such persons as could not have the assistance of a 
ph3^sician. This Mr. Timothy published on June 1st, and 
it appears to have consisted chiefly of two treatments, one 
was blood letting and the other the use of the syrup of 
white poppies. To these were added, in some instances, 
the most loathsome and disgusting decoctions. Mr. 
Timothy, in the same issue of the Gazette, observes, edi- 
torially : " We don't hear that the smallpox spreads much 
in the town, and there are very few that have it in the 
natural way and all very favorably ; but several being fond 
of having it, have been inoculated, and probably the dis- 
temper has been propagated more that way than it would 
have been trusting to Providence and using prudent 
precautions in preparing the body in case of an attack. 
What success the inoculation will have in these parts of 
the world we shall learn by those who have been willing 
to expose themselves to the tryal." 

Dr. Morbray, a surgeon of a British man-of-war, then 
in the harbor, had proposed inoculation, and though all the 
physicians in the province first opposed it. Dr. Morbray's 
suggestion was adopted by many persons. Mr. Philip 
Prioleau was the first person in Charlestown who sub- 
mitted to inoculation. The success which attended his 
experiment encouraged others to follow his example. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 425 

But there was great opposition to the practice. Mr. 
Timothy again attacks it in the G-azette of the 15th of 
June. He observes : — 

"We hear that since numbers, whites and blacks, have been inocu- 
lated of the smallpox, that distemper is now become more epidemical 
and several have died among some of those who have undergone the 
operation. We hope, however, that Artists, by keeping an exact and 
true account of such as have died by Infusion, and of such who have 
died naturally, will make it appear that the general good of mankind 
is their only motive for inflicting and propagating a distemper, and 
that purchasing the same at the risque of one's life is preferable to a 
resignation to the will of the Supreme Author of the Universe." 

In the same issue of the Gazette an essay on the subject 
appears which, beginning on the 8th, runs through nearly 
eight issues of this paper. Then on the 6th of July 
another writer takes up the matter and answers Mr. 
Timothy's editorial, discussing the objection that the pi'ac- 
tice was not consistent with our duty of trusting to Provi- 
dence ; but rather a tempting of God and taking ourselves 
as it were out of his into our own or the physician's hands ; 
and whether it be an improper, immoral means of obtain- 
ing this good and moral end, or, in other words, a pre- 
sumptuous doing evil that good may come.^ On these 
lines the discussion ran all through the summer, and 
Philalethes Fhilanthropos, and Philo-verus Fhilirenus, and 
Laicus, and others, week by week, in long, dry, prosy 
disquisitions contended for and against the morality of 

1 As late as 1766, upon inoculation of the Royal children, the same 
outcry was raised in England, says the author of the Memoirs of Cieorye 
IV, 14. "The most decided and illiberal opposition was everywhere 
manifested toward the practice of inoculation, and some overzealous and 
puritanical preachers extended their zeal so far as to denounce it from 
the pulpit as of the most impious tendency ; that it was criminally and 
unjustifiably interfering in the concerns of heaven, and consequently its 
extreme vengeance was denounced on those who dared to follow such a 
guilty example." 



426 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the practice, seldom touching the medical question ; until, 
on the 7th of September, Mr. Timothy was obliged to 
insert this notice: — 

" Two Letters, one signed Laicus and the other Philiremus are come 
to hand; but as there is a fresh supply of Foreign news and the gen- 
erality of my customers shew a dislike to have any more of inoculation 
in the Gazette, the letter of Laicus will be published next week by 
itself and may then be had of the printer hereof." 

From one of these papers we get, however, this piece of 
information : that about 160 white persons and 200 negroes, 
near 400 in all, were inoculated up to the 20th of July, 
and that not a single one of all the white persons who had 
taken the distemper by inoculation had died under it up to 
the 6th of July. After that date two children that were 
inoculated died, and two white adults ; but the latter, it 
was insisted, had taken the disease before the treatment.^ 
It does not appear to have been disputed, however, tliat 
the practice spread the infection and increased the number 
of cases. The experience in South Carolina, therefore, 
confirmed this general objection to the practice. 

During the prevalence of the epidemic Lieutenant 
Governor Bull issued a proclamation appointing a day of 
fasting and humiliation to implore the Divine goodness to 
avert the calamity; and on the 12th of September he con- 
vened the General Assembly at Ashley Ferry instead of 
Charlestown in consequence of the continuance of the 
disease there. But two acts were passed at this session, 
one "/or the better preventing the spreading of the smallpox 
in Charlestown,'''' and the other "/or the further security and 
better defence of this province." The first of these pro- 
hibited any person having the smallpox from coming into 
the town or within two miles of it, and prohibited inocu- 
lation within the same distance of the town, provided for 

1 Gazette, July 20, 1738. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 427 

the removal of infected persons, and required masters of 
plantations to affix a white rag at the gate or entrance to 
any house or plantation in the country in which there was 
a case of smallpox. The Justices of the Peace, church 
wardens, and constables were charged with the duty of 
enforcing the law.^ 

The next epidemic of smallpox was in 1760. About 
the beginning of this year, says Dr. Ramsay, the smallpox 
was discovered in the house of a pilot on White Point; 
guards were placed around the house, and every precaution 
taken to prevent the spreading of disease, but in vain. 
When the persons first infected were either dead or well, 
the house in which they had lain was ordered to be 
cleansed. In doing this a great smoke was made, which, 
being carried by an easterly wind, propagated the disease 
extensively to the westward in the line of the smoke. 
Inoculation was again resorted to and became general. 

When this practice was first introduced, and for years 
after, says the same author, the inoculators loaded their 
patients with mercury and tortured them with deep, crucial 
incisions, in which extraneous substances impregnated 
with the variolous matter were buried. There were then 
able physicians in Charlestown, but they were so mistaken 
with regard to the proper method of treating the disease 
that it was no uncommon practice to nail blankets over 
the shut windows of closed rooms to exclude every particle 
of cool fresh air from their variolous patients, whose com- 
fort and safety depended on its free admission. The con- 
sequences were fatal. Charlestown was a scene of the 
deepest affliction. Almost every family was in distress 
for the loss of some of its members, but so occupied with 
their attentions to the sick they could neither indulge the 
pomp nor the luxury of grief. The deaths from the small- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 513. 



428 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

pox were nearly eleven-twelfths of the whole mortality in 
Charlestown. Only 87 died of other diseases, while the 
deaths from smallpox amounted to 940. Of these only 
92 died under inoculation. Fifteen hundred persons are 
said to have been inoculated in one day, and it is certain 
from the bills of mortality 848 persons died of the disease 
who were not inoculated. If we allow, says Dr. Ramsay, 
that only one in four died, as in the year 1738, the whole 
number who took the disease in the natural way must 
have been 3392. 

In the year 1763 the smallpox returned; but as there 
were few to have it, and inoculation was generally adopted, 
its ravages were not extensive. For seventeen years after 
we seldom or never hear of the disease. It made its ap- 
pearance again just before the siege of Charlestown ; and 
immediately after the surrender of the town, on the 12th 
of May, 1780, a general inoculation took place. But, 
observes Dr. Ramsay, as the cool regimen was then uni- 
versally adopted, the disease passed over without any con- 
siderable loss or inconvenience. 

But the disease which has done more to the injury of 
Charlestown than any other, both before and since the 
Revolution, — though happily now it is hoped effectually 
excluded by our rigid quarantine system, — is the yellow 
fever. 

We have already seen the ravages of this disease in 
1699, 1703, 1706, 1728, 1732, 1739. It again appeared, 
but with less severity, in 1745, 1748, and again, in a few 
casus only, in 1753 and 1755. For forty-four years after 
1748, that is, until ten years after the Revolution, there 
was no general epidemic, though occasionally in different 
summers a few sporadic cases occurred. 

Believing from experience that yellow fever was an 
imported disease, the General Assembly in 1747 again 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 429 

took up the subject of the quarantine regulations and 
made still more stringent provisions in regard to them. 
No vessel coming from any part of America in which the 
commander of Fort Johnson had information that there 
existed any plague, malignant fever, smallpox, or other 
contagious distemper, or the master of which refused to 
answer questions on oath as to the health of those on board, 
was permitted to pass the fort till some one of the physi- 
cians named in the act should have visited the vessel and 
certified the commander of the fort that all persons on board 
were in health. The physicians named in this act were 
Dr. John Lining, Dr. David Caw, and Dr. William Rind.^ 
Two years after another act upon the subject was passed 
by which the church wardens and vestry of St. Philip's, 
Charlestown, were directed to procure or hire some con- 
venient house in an open and airy place, and at a proper 
distance from the body of the town, as a public hospital 
for all sick sailors and other transient persons, which 
hospital was to be subject to such regulations and direc- 
tions as the church wardens and vestry should find neces- 
sary, and to be committed to the care and management of 
a sober, prudent, and discreet matron, who should have 
under her such assistant nurses, servants, and others as 
the necessity of the times might require.^ 

The disease which has been more injurious to the low 
country of South Carolina than any other has been that 
for many years known as the country fever, though it does 
not seem to have been so called when Dr. Ramsay wrote 
in 1809, nor does he appear to have regarded it as fatal 
as it afterward became. 

Fevers, says Dr. Ramsay, are the proper endemics of 
Carolina and oftener occur than any, probably than all, 
other diseases. These he holds are the effects of its warm, 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, G94. 2 m^^^ 720. 



430 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

moist climate, of its low grounds and stagnant waters. 
In their mildest season they assume the type of intermit- 
tents; in their next grade they are bilious remittents; 
and under particular circumstances in their highest grade 
constitute yellow fever. No physician of the present day 
would confuse country fever in its deadliest form with 
yellow fever, but it was no less fatal. Dr. Ramsay traces 
the curious results of the efforts of the inhabitants to 
avoid tliese diseases. When the province was first settled 
the country was healthy. Archdale declared that the air 
was serene and exceeding pleasant, as the first settlers 
experienced, seldom having any raging sickness but what 
had been brought from the Southern colonies, i.e. the West 
Indies, by vessels coming to the town.^ So in the letter 
written by the Governor and Council in January, 1699- 
1700, giving an account of the yellow fever of the year 
before, it is mentioned that besides those who died in the 
town, ten or eleven died in the country, all of whom got 
the distemper and were infected in the town, went home 
and died, and what is notable, it is observed, not one of 
all their families was infected b}' them.^ Dr. Dalcho 
remarks that the interesting fact is obtained from this 
letter that before our extensive swamps were cleared of 
their timber, and their surface exposed to the direct rays 
of the sun, persons could reside in the country in the 
summer and autumn without danger, and when an unusual 
sickness prevailed in the town, the country was resorted to 
as a place of health.^ Thus we have just seen Lieuten- 
ant Governor Bull, in 1738, summoning the Assembly to 
Ashley Hall on the Ashley River, and the Assembly meet- 
ing there in September, which a hundred years later would 

1 OarroH's Coll., vol. II, 90. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 309. 
* Dalclio's Ch. IJist., 30, uote. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 431 

liave been considered certain death to every member. The 
mansions which lined the Ashley River, and were to be 
found all through the low country, attest the confidence of 
the builders in the health of these localities. But with 
the great increase in the area planted in rice, the turning 
up of the soil in the swamps, and the excavations made in 
the great ditches and cuts connecting the creeks and rivers 
and opening the swamps, the bilious remittent fevers 
began to assume the deadly character subsequently known 
as country fever. 

In a description of the province written in 1763, it 
was charged that the inhabitants, more careful to acquire 
splendid fortunes than to preserve their health, built 
their houses near their rice fields and indigo-dams, where 
they must always keep stagnating water. ^ Finding these 
becoming unhealthy, the planters during most of the 
period of the Royal government resorted to the town 
during the summer. Those who could afford the ex- 
penses of double residence spent their summers in town 
and their winters in the country, thus reversing the 
ordinary habit of other countries. The absence of yellow 
fever for twenty-seven years before the Revolution con- 
firmed this custom, which became very general. The 
frequent recurrence of yellow fever again after the Revo- 
lution, and the crowded condition of the metropolis, in- 
duced numbers to adopt other plans. The sea ishmds, 
particularly Sullivan's Island, Beaufort, Eding's Bay, and 
the seashore generally, were found safe asylums alike 
from tlie fevers of the rice fields and the yellow fever in 
the towns. Spots of high and dry land covered witli 2>ine 
trees, and a sufficient distance from ponds, swamps, and 
reservoirs, were sought, and to them families retired from 
their mansions on their plantations, and generally in com- 

1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 493. 



432 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

paratively rough frame houses passed the summers sociably 
with their neighbors, allured to the same place with the 
same views. While the forced absence of the masters 
from their plantations was no doubt a great injury to their 
estates, and the fact' that the white man could not live in 
these regions during a considerable part of the year was 
and has continued to be a great drawback to the prosperity 
of the community, unexpected but very natural advantages 
resulted from and in a great measure compensated the 
evils of the system. The summer settlements became the 
seats of schools and churches, neither of which were in 
the convenient reach of the inhabitants when dispersed 
over the country upon their plantations. Nor were the 
planting interests as materially injured as might be 
supposed, for one of the conditions of the site of a 
summer settlement was that it should be in reach of 
the plantation of a day's journey to and from, allowing 
a sufficient time for a supervision of the place. These 
summer resorts thus became social centres, collections 
of people of wealth, and during the summer of leisure; 
for it so happened that during the summer there was 
little to be done on the plantations. 

In the Gazette of June 5, 1755, there is a notice of a 
meeting of the Faculty of Physic, Dr. John Moultrie, 
President, which took place at Gordon's Tavern on the 2d. 
This Faculty was formed, it was said, for. the support of 
the dignity, the privileges, and emoluments of the humane 
art, especially of those allowed them by the King's au- 
thority, national customs, and usages of all places and 
provinces, Charlestown alone excepted. The Faculty 
declared : — 

" That considering they are called out under the greatest inclem- 
encies of the weathei', sometimes merely to gratify the patient, some- 
times when no medicines are required or only such as the families 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 433 

themselves are provided with, that they are often slowly and seldom 
sufliciently paid for their solicitous care in providing the greatest of all 
temporal blessings — nay, that without which life would be misery — 
viz. the health of their fellow-citizens ; neither can they think that 
the payment of an apothecary's bill is a sufficient reward to him who 
acts in three distinct offices of physic, surgery, and pharmacy. They 
therefore have unanimously resolved that after the tenth instant they 
will give no further attendance without a reasonable fee paid at the 
first, and at every other visit during the course of their attendance." 

We are not informed whether the Faculty were able to 
carry on their practice on this cash basis. 

VOL. II — 2 F 



CHAPTER XXIII 

The jurisdiction of the Bishop of London over the 
Church and clergy in America, which had been questioned 
in several of the colonies,^ was definitely prescribed, so 
far as the province of South Carolina was concerned, by 
the instructions to Sir Francis Nicholson, the Provisional 
Governor,^ and confirmed by those to Robert Johnson, the 
first regular Royal Governor of the province.^ The Rev. 
William Tredwell Bull, minister of St. Paul's, Colleton 
County, succeeded the Rev. Gideon Johnson, who, it will 
be recollected, was drowned in 171G,* as Commissary of the 
Bishop of London. We do not know when he Avas ap- 
pointed, but we find him acting as such in 1723, and are 
indebted to him for an account of the condition of the 
Church of England in the province at that time.^ He was 
in London at the time, and wrote as follows : — 

" The Province of South Carolina is divided into thirteen Parishes. 
In Berkeley county there are eight. 

"1. St. Philips, Charles City,^ the only one of note and port of trade 
in the said province, which parish extends throughout the said city 

1 imt. of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 417, 418-420, 442, 471. 

2 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. II, 147. ^ ma., 178. 
* Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 548. 

° Hist. Address by J. J. P. Smith, Appendix ; special services St. 
Philip's Church in commemoration of the planting of the church in prov- 
ince of Carolina, 13th of May, 1775. 

6 It will be observed that throughout this Report Charlestown is 
spoken of as Charles City. It will be remembered this was during Gov- 
ernor Nicholson's attempt to establish a municipal government for the 
town under the name of Charles City. 

434 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 435 

and a neck or point of land between the two navigable rivers of 
Ashley and Cooper about six miles in length and two in breadth, may 
contain between three hundred and four hundred Christian families. 
In the said city there is a newly erected church, not yet entirely tin- 
ished ; a large, regular, and beautiful building exceeding any that are 
in his Majesty's dominions in America. The present Minister of the 
said church is the Rev. Alexander Garden (who hath enjoyed the liv- 
ing somewhat more than three years), a learned and pious divine 
but of a sickly and weak constitution, stated salary £150 equal to 
£120 sterling, paid out of the public treasury, besides the perquisites 
wliich are in that parish considerable. Likewise there is a grammar 
school now setting up by Rev. Thomas Merrit, Missionary from S. P. G. 
with salary from Society of £30 sterling and £100 proclamation 
money from public treasury, besides benefit of scholars which is 
settled by law at £3 per annum, a scholar, proclamation money. 

" There are also in this city a small congregation of French refugees 
who retain the Liturgy and Discipline of the Reformed Church of 
France, one of Presbyterians, another of Anabaptists, and a few 
Quakers who each have a Meeting House, but at present neither of 
them has a settled minister or teacher. 

"2. St. James, Goose Creek. A rich and populous parish. The 
church which is about sixteen miles from Charles City is a neat ami 
regular, but not a large, brick building. To this church is lately gone 
over a missionary from the Honourable S. P. G., the Rev. Mr. Ludlam. 
The stated salary from the public treasury allowed to this and each 
of the other county parishes is £100 per annum proclamation money 
or value thereof in currency of Carolina. Also a very handsome par- 
sonage house of brick and a glebe of about one hundred acres. 

"3. St. Andrews. The church about twelve miles from Charles 
City ; the minister Rev. Mr. Guy, a worthy divine and well esteemed 
of the parish, one of the Honourable Society's Missionaries and hath 
been so for eleven years. There is a decent parsonage house and a 
glebe of twenty-five acres. The inha))itants are now enlarging and 
beautifying the Parish church which is of brick. . . . 

"4. St. Georges. The church is twenty-five miles from Charles 
City, a large and populous parish, wherein is a handsome brick 
Church, a parsonage built of timber, and a glebe of two hundred and 
fifty acres. To this church is now going over the Rev. Mr. Varnod, 
Missionary from the Honourable Society. 

"5. St. Johns. A large, populous, and rich parish in which is a 



436 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

decent brick church twenty-five miles from Charles City, lately 
adorned and beautified at the charge of the parishioners, a very con- 
venient brick parsonage house pleasantly situated upon a glebe of 
three hundred acres. Rev. Mr. Brian Hunt Minister and Missionary 
from Honourable S. P. G. arrived there about March or April last, 
and was kindly received by the people. 

"6. St. Thomas, a large and populous parish in which are two 
churclies and two glebes, but no parsonage house yet built. The Rev. 
Mr. Hasell, who hath been Minister of the parish and Missionary from 
the Honourable Society fourteen years and well esteemed by the 
people, residing upon an estate and in a house of his own, while the 
money appropriated from the public for the building of our (sic) 
house is daily increasing, being put out upon good security at the 
legal interest of the country. 

"7. St. Dennis. A congregation of French refugees, conforming 
to the Church of England, and within the bounds of St. Thomas 
Parish, and made a distinct parish for a time till the present inhabit- 
ants or their children attain the English tongue. The Minister, the 
Rev. Mr. John La Pierre, also hath enjoyed the living about twelve 
years, receiving an equal salary from the treasury with the other 
country parishes, but is no Missionary. 

" 8. Christ Church. A large parish, but poor ; there is a timber 
Church thirteen miles from Charles City, a parsonage house, a glebe 
of one hundred acres. The present Minister, the Rev. Mr. Pownal 
one of the Missionaries S. P. G., came over to that parish in October 
last. 

" In Craven County are two parishes. 

" 9. St. James, Santee. A parish consisting chiefly of French 
refugees conforming to the Church of England in which is a church 
about sixty miles from Charles City, a Parsonage house, and a glebe 
of near one thousand acres. The present Minister, Rev. I\Ir. Albert 
Poudevous, a learned divine and convert from the Church of Rome, 
hath been resident there about two years. 

"10. King George's Parish, which, being a new settlement about 
ninety miles from Charles City, was made a parish by his Excellency 
General Nicholson, his Majesty's present governor, about eighteen 
months ago, the General Assembly having allowed £10(10 currency and 
his Excellency having given £100 toward the building of a church 
there which is not yet begun. 

" In Colleton County there are two parishes. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 437 

" 11. St. Paul's now vacant, and the parishioners humbly suppliant 
for another minister. . . . The church, which is built of brick and 
stands twenty miles from Charles City, being too small for the present 
congregation, is at this time enlarging and beautifying ; the inhabit- 
ants having raised subscription among themselves upwards of £10UO 
and obtained from the General Assembly £500 currency besides a 
legacy of £100 bequeathed to that use by Mr. Jno. Whitmarsh of the 
said Parish lately deceased, and some few other presents. Near the 
church is a glebe of seventy acres, whereon was a convenient brick 
house and outbuildings burnt by the Indians in the war of 1715 and 
not yet rebuilt; £456 allowed for repairs from treasury. 

" 12. St. Bartholomews. Vacant since 1715 by death of Mr. 
Osborne. Entirely depojiulated by Indian war ; very few inhabitants 
returned. Neither Church nor Parsonage house ; glebe of three hun- 
dred acres. 

" In Granville County but one parish. 

"13. St. Helena's. Neither Church nor Parsonage house. £1000 
lately allowed by General Assembly and £100 by Governor. Depopu- 
lated by Indian war, but many inhabitants since returned." 

During the Royal government nine additional parishes 
had been laid off and established. In 1734 the parish of 
St. Paul's in Colleton County was divided. John's Island, 
Wadmalaw Island, and Edisto Island were cut off and 
made into a new parish, under the name of St. John's, 
Colleton; a part of Prince George's, Winyaw, that where 
Georgetown stands, was cut off and made into a parish, to 
be called Prince Frederick. ^ In 1745 St. Helena's Parish 
was divided; the new parish was called Prince William. ^ 
In 1747 the township of Purrysburg was cut off also from 
St. Helena and made into a parish under the name of 
St. Peter's.^ We have seen the division of Charlestown 
into two parishes and the establishment of the new par- 
ish of St. Michael's in 1751.* The new parish of Prince 
Frederick was in 1757 again subdivided by cutting off all 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. TIT, 374. 

2 Ibid., 658. 3 Ibid., 668. * Ibid., 753. 



438 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the territory between the Pee Dee and Santee rivers north 
of Williamsburg township, and erected into a parish under 
the name of St. Mark's, in the present counties of Claren- 
don, Sumter, Kershaw, Chester, and Lancaster.^ In 1767 
two new parishes were established, one from another 
portion of St. Helena Parish, to be called St. Luke's, 
and another from Prince Frederick, to be called "All 
Saint's."^ In the next year, 1768, St. David's Parish, 
Cheraw, was cut off from another part of Prince Frederick.^ 
In 1756 provision was made for an itinerant missionary in 
the remote parts of the province, whose principal residence 
was to be at Fredericksburg, Wateree, in the midst of a 
thickly settled country. For this mission Mr. Charles 
Woodmason, a highly respected resident in the colony, 
and for some time in those parts of it, went to England 
to obtain ordination. 

From a full and particular account given by him in 1766 
of the parishes and churches in the province, it appears 
that there were then twenty parishes ; of these sixteen 
were provided with either rectors or officiating ministers. 
Besides these there were three extra parochial districts; 
the number of clergymen, if all the positions were filled, 
twenty-five, besides a clergyman who Avas master of the 
free school in Charlestown. The twenty parishes sent 
fifty members of Assembly. The account contains minute 
descriptions of several of the parish churches and some 
mention of the modes of worship. There is a very signifi- 
cant and interesting observation in this paper. Mr. Wood- 
mason states that "the reason why no more parishes are 
laid out arises from political motives, as it would increase 
the number of Assembly men, toliich place is so tronhlesome 
and expensive that few are to he found at an election to under- 
t'lke it." Mr. Woodmason's churchmanship, it has been 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IV, 35. 2 jua.^ 266. 3 ji^ia.^ 300. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 439 

observed, seems to have been of that steady character 
which is not easily shaken by ahirms; for while he men- 
tions without comment that surplices were worn only in 
the three towns, he tells us, also without comment, that 
St. Philip's was built after the model of the Jesuits' col- 
lege at Antwerp, and has rich cloths and coverings not 
only for the pulpit, but also for the altar. He alludes to 
the i)late and ornaments of St. Michael's as "superb," and 
says that this church was after the model of the church of 
Greenwich. 1 

Commissary Bull left the province in 1723, and Bishop 
Gibson of London appointed Mr. Alexander Garden in 
1726 as his Commissary. This was the same Mr. Garden 
whom Commissary Bull had described as learned and 
pious, but of a sickly and weak constitution. He never- 
theless was rector of St. Philip's for thirty-four and 
Commissary of the Bishop of London for twenty-eight 
years, in which positions he exercised his sacred f auctions, 
it was said, with becoming piety, zeal, and candor, and 
with unwearied labor and diligence. The principal events 
of his ministry — his controversy with Mr. Whitefield, and 
his attempt to carry out tlie design of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel to educate negroes, whom the 
society were to purchase for employment in negro schools 
— we have already related and discussed. 

We have no account of formal visitations of the clerg}^ 
by either Commissary Johnson or Commissary Bull, if any 
such were held; but we have of those of Commissary 
Garden. His first visitation was held October 20, 1731, 
when the clergy were convened for the purpose. These 
annual visitations he continued regularly for twenty-three 
years, until his resignation in 1754. No other commissary 
was appointed to succeed him. The clergy, however, con- 

1 Hist. Address by J. J. V. Smith, etc., before mentioned. 



440 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tinued these annual meetings until prevented by the 
approach of the Revolution. The twenty-second annual 
meeting was held April 25, 1770. Nine clergymen were 
present, six were absent. The sermon was preached by 
the Rev. John Lewis, Rector of St. John's, Colleton. ^ 

The Rev. John Wesley's first visit to CharlestoAvn, in 
1736, happened at the time of one of these annual visita- 
tions of Commissary Garden, and he thus gives his expe- 
rience concerning it. " I had the pleasure of meeting 
with the clergy of South Carolina, among whom in the 
afternoon there was such a conversation for several hours 
on ' Christ our Righteousness ' as I had not heard at any 
Visitation in England or hardly any other occasion. "^ 

The Rev. Mr. Garden was beloved, says Dr. Dalcho, by 
the clergy as a father, and greatly esteemed by the congre- 
gation for whose spiritual welfare he had labored so many 
years. The vestry, wardens, and parishioners joined in an 
address to him uponhis resignation, expressing their rev- 
erence and love, and presented to him a piece of plate 
with an engraving upon it of the west front of the church, 
and an appropriate inscription. ^ 

Mr. Garden was succeeded as rector of St. Philip's by 
the Rev. Richard Clarke, who officiated, however, as such 
but three years, when he returned to England and was 
succeeded in 1756 by the Rev. Robert Smith, A.M., 
Fellow of Caius and Gonville College, Cambridge, who 
continued rector of the church for fifty-two years, and was 
the first American Bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina. 
From this time Mr. Smith's name will be found interwoven 
with the history of the province, particularly during the 
struggle of the Revolution. 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 200. » Digest of S. P. G. Records, 27. 

3 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 171-174; Hist. Sketch of St. Philip's Ch., by 
Edward McCrady ; Charleston Year Book, 18t)6. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 441 

A sudden storm in the harbor of Charlestown lost to tlie 
Church of England its chief minister in Carolina in 1710. ^ 
The hurricane of twenty years before had left stranded 
upon its shores the Rev. Archibald Stobo, who ma}^ be 
said to have established the Presbyterian Church in Caro- 
lina. The almost miraculous circumstance by which he 
was saved from destruction when the Rismg Sun was lost 
off the Charlestown bar in 1G96 will be remembered. It 
was the beginning of a ministry in Carolina which was to 
extend through forty years of the eventful history of the 
province. He is represented as having founded several 
churches, particularly those at Wilton, Pon Pon, James 
Island, and Cainhoy;^ and was most influential in forming 
the first presbytery in the province, which was the third 
presbytery organization of the United States. 

Mr. Cotton, the minister of the Independent or Congre- 
gational Church in Charlestown had died a year before Mr. 
Stobo was thrown upon our coast, Mr. Stobo's ministry in 
that church commenced immediately after that event and 
continued for four years. He was succeeded in that charge 
by the Rev. William Livingston, whose ministry lasted be- 
yond the year 1720. In 1724 forty-three persons, mem- 
bers of the church, subscribed a call inviting the Rev. 
Nathan Bassett to be their minister.^ Mr. Bassett was 
a graduate of Harvard University, and was ordained in 
Boston on the 14th of April, 1724, with a view of becoming 
the pastor of this church. He was a member of the presby- 
ter}', but was regarded as a Congregationali«t. He com- 
plained that Governor Nicholson was very offensive to him 
upon his arrival, asking, " How dare the ministers of Boston 
be such impudent dogs as to ordain you for and send you 
to a particular place in my government." The Governor, 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 548. 

» Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 146. 3 jn^^^ 145^ 146^ I47, 



442 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Mr. Bassett stated, had prejudices against Dissenters as 
of "factious and republican principles not worthy to 
be tolerated in his Majesty's dominion ; " he " wished to 
recall privileges granted to Dissenters, as they aimed 
at independency of the State, as in New England," etc.^ 

The original building used by the Independent congrega- 
tion was but forty feet square and slightly built. It was 
much out of repair, and in 1729 the building of a new house 
of worship was begun, which was completed in 1732. It was 
built entirely by private means, the subscriptions varying 
from £1 10s. to XlOO, and amounting in all to X8322 15s., 
which was increased in 1731 by ,£322 additional for enlarg- 
ing the building. Being a wooden building and painted 
white, it became known as "The White Meeting." 

The present Meeting Street in Charleston was originally 
called Church Street, but upon the removal of the congre- 
gation of St. Philip's Church to the site of the present 
church, the street on which it was erected took the name 
of Church Street, and the old Church Street became Meet- 
ing Street, from the " White Meeting-house " upon it. 

The Rev. Josiah Smith was at this time called from the 
church at Cainhoy to the "White Meeting" church in 
Charlestown as a colleague to Mr. Bassett. This was 
owing not only to the occasion for pastoral assistance, 
but probably still more to heal the breach caused by the 
separation of the Scotch Presbyterians. Mr. Smith was of 
a prominent family, being a grandson of the Landgrave 
Thomas Smith, once Governor of the colony. He was 
born in Charlestown in 1704, and was graduated at Har- 
vard, Massachusetts, in 1725, and the next year ordained 
a minister for Bermuda. It is not known how long Mr. 
Smith remained at that place, but he became minister at 
Cainhoy probably as early as 1728. ^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresb. Ch., 180-184. 2 ii)i(i,^ 186. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 443 

Until 1731 the Presbyterians and Congregational ists 
worshipped together. Before Mr. Stobo's pastorate there 
had been three Congregationalist ministers from New 
England. He and his successor, Mr. Livingston, were 
Presbyterians. During the pastorate of Mr. Bassett, who 
was a Congregationalist, the Europeans in the body being 
zealously attached to the form and discipline of the Church 
of Scotland, withdrew and formed another society. They 
founded the First Presbyterian Church, and required that 
their ministers should be ordained in the Presbyterian 
form and hold to the Westminster confession of faith. 
The members thus separating were chiefly natives of Scot- 
land, and the organization assumed the name of the Scotch 
Church, which it has ever since borne. Their first minis- 
ter was the Rev. Hugh Stewart. Their house of worship 
Avas built of wood with a steeple and chanticleer vane. It 
stood in Meeting Street, near the site of the present church 
edifice. 1 

The records of this church have unfortunately been lost, 
and we only know, says Dr. Howe, of Mr. Lorimer's con- 
nection with it from the casual mention of him in the 
records of other churches relating to the presbytery. Mr. 
Lorimer appears at one time to have been very popular, 
but his popularity did not last, and he appears to have 
severed his connection with the church, and after some 
time to have been succeeded by Philip Morrison in 1757, 
and he by the Rev. Alexander Hewatt, the historian, in 
1763. Dr. Hewatt continued his charge of the congrega- 
tion as late as 1775; but he was a Royalist, as most Scotch- 
men were, and abandoned the colony upon the breaking 
out of the Revolution. He was intimate with the family 
of Lieutenant Governor Bull, and, as stated in the intro- 
ductory chapter to the previous work of the author's, wrote 

1 Howe's Hist, rresb. Ch., 201 ; Charleston Year Bool; 1882, 397. 



444 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

his history, it is believed, in consultation with that gen- 
tleman, while they were both in exile in London.^ 

The letter written from Charlestown, June 1, 1710, 
which has before been quoted, states that there are "iive 
churches of British Presbyterians."^ Dr. Howe supposes 
that the Cong'reg'ationalist Church in Charlestown was in- 
eluded in these, and that the others were tlie churches on 
James's Island, John's Island, Edisto, and Cainhoy.^ 
That on Edisto was probably the first. It was established 
by the emigrants from Scotland and Wales, who were per- 
manently settled on that island in the beginning of the 
century. Without the aid of government generally, and 
though having themselves through their taxes to contribute 
to the appropriations for the building of churches and 
maintenance of the clergy of the Church of England, the 
Presbyterians increased and founded new churches. In 
one instance at least, however, they received assistance 
from the Royal government, and that was in the estab- 
lishment of the colony of Irish Presbyterians at Williams- 
burg. The Presbyterian Church founded there in 1734 by 
the Rev. John Witherspoon, a native of Glasgow, Scot- 
land, who had emigrated to the county of Down in Ireland, 
and then to Carolina, received grants of glebe lands with 
not only permission to enjoy the faith and worship of the 
Presbyterian Church, but with a positive proviso, and 
limitation that the minister occupying the premises and 
ministering there shall "profess, teach, and use the doc- 
trine, discipline, and worship now used in the Church of 
Scotland and subscribing the Westminster confession of 
faith as his confession.* 

Kamsay says that the Rev. Dr. Stobo founded the 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 271, 272, 318. 403. 

2 Ibid, 103. 3 ii,i(i^ 146. 
* Hist, of Williamsburg Ch. (Wallace), IG. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 445 

churches on James's Island and Cainhoy. The Rev. Mr. 
Witherspoon was the pastor of the former for ten years, 
and the Rev. Josiah Smith was pastor of the hitter. The 
church on James's Island was ministered to by the Rev. 
Mr. Turnbull.i 

With the Swiss colony under John Peter Purry, in 1732, 
came out the Rev. Joseph Bugnion, who had taken orders 
in the Church of England, being ordained by Dr. Clagett, 
Bishop of St. David's, though doubtless most of these set- 
tlers were members of the Reformed Church of Switzerland 
before they came to America. He ministered to the colo- 
nists of Purrysburg for two years, when he removed to 
St. James, Santee. Ten years later the Rev. Henry 
Chiffelle, another native of Switzerland, was ordained by 
Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, and sent out by the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel to what remained of that 
unfortunate colony, and continued in his mission there 
until his death in 1758. ^ During his ministry the settle- 
ment was established as a separate parish by an act of the 
Assembly, under the name of St. Peter's Parish. ^ 

The exiled Salzburghers, who, assisted by the " Society 
for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge," emigrated 
to Georgia, arrived off the harbor of Charlestown in March, 
1734; and while the ship containing them lay off the bar. 
Governor Oglethorpe brought their Commissary, the Baron 
von Reck, and their pastor, John Martin Bolzius, with 
him to the town. Here they found a few Germans, firm 
in their attachment to the Lutheran faith, desiring the 
celebration of the Holy Supper. The Rev. Mr. Bolzius 
returned therefore in May with the Baron, and on Sunday, 
May 26, 1734, at five o'clock in the morning, in the inn 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 187. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hint., 385, 380 ; German Settlements, etc. (Bernheim) , 96, 
8 Statutes, vol. HI, 6G8. 



446 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in which Bolzius was stopping, it is supposed, he admin- 
istered the Holy Communion to those who on the da}^ 
before he had examined and absolved according to the 
usages of the Lutheran Church. 

Nothinof more is heard of the Lutherans in Charlestown 
until 1742, when the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, 
on his way from the settlement of the Salzburghers at 
Ebenezer, near Savannah, to Philadelphia, compelled to 
wait three weeks for a vessel, gathered the German resi- 
dents and instructed them in the catechism and preached 
to the old and young on Sundays. In 1753 the Lutherans 
were visited by two other passing clergymen. It was not 
until 1759 that the Rev. John George Friederichs regu- 
larly organized a congregation and became its pastor. 
This congregation for a while worshipped in the French 
Protestant Church. The corner-stone of a church was laid 
December 17, 1759. It was completed during the pas- 
torate of the Rev. John Nicholas Martin, and dedicated 
June 24, 1764, as St. John's Church. From a translation 
of the old records it appears that the congregation solemnly 
declared its entire independence, was governed by a 
council and wardens, over whom the minister presided, 
and in whose meetings he was entitled to two votes, to 
be given after all the other members bad declared their 
preference. All important business was referred to the 
congregation itself. The rules required that the pastor 
should have been trained and ordained in a Lutheran 
university, that "he should not be addicted to the English 
Articles," and that he should be called according to the 
custom of the German Protestant churches. At the same 
time he was forbidden to attack the doctrines of the Church 
of England. He wore the gown. Wafer bread was used 
in the communion, which was administered once every 
two months. The Festivals and the Gospels and Epistles 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 447 

of the church year were observed. On Sunday afternoon 
the Litany was said after the sermon. ^ 

The colonists who settled Orangeburg and Saxe-Gotha 
were Germans and Swiss, the first of whom came out 
during the year 1735 ; another party arrived a year later, 
but it was not until the next year, that is, in 1737, that 
their first pastor. Rev. John Ulrich Giessendanner the 
elder, came among them with another reeiiforcement of 
settlers. Emigrants from Germany continued to arrive 
and to proceed to Orangeburg until 1769. It has been 
doubted if these settlers, some of whom, the Swiss, came 
from the land of Calvin, were not tinctured at least with 
his doctrines, but Bernheim, the historian of the German 
Settlement and Lutheran Church in the Carolinas., main- 
tains that they were not Swiss Reformers or Calvinistic in 
their faith, but Lutherans. The elder Giessendanner was 
a native of Switzerland, and it is believed was a Luth- 
eran, but the evidence upon the point is not conclusive. 
He did not long labor among the people. He died about 
the close of the year 1738. 

The first clergyman of the name was succeeded by his 
nephew. Rev. John Giessendanner, some time during the 
year 1739. He is said to have been "a man of learning, 
piety, and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures." He was 
probably educated for the ministry, but left Europe before 
he was ordained. It is curious that though a Lutheran 
in faith he first accepted ordination at the hands of the 
Charlestown presbytery, and after some years took Epis- 
copal orders. He labored for ten years in the church at 
Orangeburg as a Lutheran, after which in 1749 he went to 

1 German Settlements and Lutheran Chyrrh in the Carolinas (Bern- 
heim), 83 et i^eq. 206 ; St. John's Evan. Luth. Ch., Charleston Tear 
Book, 1884 (Rev. E. T. Horn), 262 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. 
II, 39. 



448 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

London and was ordained by the Right Rev. Dr. Sherlock, 
Bishop of London. This change was probably made from 
a desire of more intimate connection with some ecclesi- 
astical organization than was afforded by his own church. 
He died in 1761. Nothing is known of the congregation 
from his death until 1768, when a new Episcopal chapel 
was ordered to be erected, and the Rev. Paul Turquand 
preached there in connection with another congregation. ^ 

In 1764 came out the colony of French Protestants under 
the Rev. Jean Louis Gibert, and settled at New Bordeaux, 
now Abbeville. Of the fact that these Huguenots had a 
regularly organized church and kept a baptismal registry 
there is no doubt, but it is not known that they had built 
a church prior to the Revolution. ^ 

In the letter of June 1, 1710, which has more than once 
been referred to, the proportion that the several religious 
sects bore to the whole and to each other are re])resented to 
have been at that time, as we have seen. Episcopalians, 
4^ to 10; Presbyterians, including those French Protes- 
tants who retained their own discipline,4l to 10; Anabap- 
tists, 1 to 10; and Quakers, .0^ to 10.^ This estimate 
was reprinted in 1732 with apparent application to that 
date, and it is curious that it is repeated in a description 
of Carolina in 1761.* Dalcho, however, quotes Oldmixon 
as giving the different religious denominations in Caro- 
lina in 1740, with this slight modification : Episcopalians, 
4^; Presbyterians, French, and other Protestants, 4i; Bap- 
tists, 1; Quakers .0| to 10.^ The great immigration of 

1 Hist, of the German Settlements, etc., in the Carolinas (Bernheim), 
118, 125. 

2 Anniversary Address (Moragne), 1854, 27. 

3 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 338. 
* Carroll's Coll., 193, 260. 

s Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 147 ; quoting Hist. British Empire, vol. I (2d ed.), 



UNDER THE liOYAL GOVERNMENT 449 

Presbyterians from Ireland and Scotland, and of the Scotch- 
Irish who came in after that time, must have greatly 
changed this proportion. 

Under the instructions to Governor Nicholson, as we 
have seen, the Bishop of London was authorized to grant 
licenses to teachers coming to Carolina. Many of the 
clergy of the Church of England came out as schoolmasters 
or tutors. The vice presidents and commissioners of the 
Provincial free school, in a memorial to the General As- 
sembly, the 5th of November, 1767, reporting that the Rev. 
Mr. McCrallen, the master of the Provincial free school, 
had been appointed assistant minister of St. Philip's 
Church, and resigned the charge of the school, complain 
that this is not the first instance of a master quitting the 
school for an ecclesiastical benefice which affords a more 
comfortable maintenance, and that such frequent changes 
of masters were an impediment to the progress of the 
schools. Dr. Dalcho, in his History^ gives a list of the 
clergy of the Church of England from the commencement 
of the colony to 1819, and from this it appears that of 
upwards one hundred and thirty-five who were in South 
Carolina previous to 1775, but five were ordained as resi- 
dents of South Carolina, and not one a native of the 
province. It is remarkable that of such a number of men 
who were in a certain sense adventurers so little is known 
to their detriment. Indeed, we may say that as a class 
they were fully equal to the high calling of their profes- 
sion. They can scarcely be said, however, to have been 
missionaries ; they came to find established churches in 
most instances, and, for the times, well-provided bene- 
fices. It was to these clergymen, often masters from 
Oxford, that to a considerable extent was owing the high 
standard of scholarship and the classical taste of the gen- 
eration of Carolinians who came upon the field during the 

VOL. II — 2 G 



450 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

revolutionary period. It is remarkable, too, that most of 
these clergymen from England, not one of whom was a 
native of the province, sided with the people in their 
struggle with the government. Most of the Episcoj^al 
clergy in Carolina joined the colonists in the revolution- 
ary struggle. Five only out of twenty-three resident in 
the province at the time adhered to Great Britain and left 
the country. The Rev. Robert Smith, afterward the first 
Bishop of South Carolina, shouldered his musket and 
amidst scenes of the greatest danger, both by precept and 
example, stimulated to intrepid resistance. Having been 
made a prisoner on the surrender of Charlestown, he was 
banished to Philadelphia. His name is first upon the list 
of those whose estates were seized by the military authori- 
ties published in the Royal Grazette, the 30th of December, 
1780. The Rev. Mr. Lewis was a firm advocate of inde- 
pendence and indefatigable in promoting its accomplish- 
ment. Delivering a patriotic discourse on the text, " The 
Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my father 
unto thee," he became particularly obnoxious to the British 
commanders, and was sent to St. Augustine with the other 
patriots who were exiled there upon the fall of Charles- 
town, and there was separated from the others and con- 
demned to solitary confinement. The Rev. Dr. Percy, 
who had come to America as one of Lady Huntington's 
missionaries, to officiate wherever he could collect an 
audience, took the side of the Revolutionists and preached 
to the troops whenever an opportunity allowed. He was 
the first orator who addressed the people on the anniversary 
of independence. The Rev. Dr. Purcell was equall}^ firm 
in his principles, and acted as chaplain and Deputy Judge 
Advocate in the field. The Rev. Paul Turquand was a 
member of tlie Provincial Congress. The Rev. Mr. Warren 
of St. James, Santee, being on a visit to England, was 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 451 

tempted by all the arts of persuasion and offers of liberal 
preferment to remain in England, but he returned to Caro- 
lina in 1778, and with unremitting zeal performed every 
duty and braved every danger to the conclusion of the 
contest. 

The conversion of the Rev. William Hutson, his coming 
to Carolina, and his ordination as a minister of the Con- 
gregational Church constitute a most interesting story. 
Mr. Hutson, the son of a clergyman of the English Church, 
was born in England in 1720, and entered upon the study 
of the law in the Inns of Court, but having a great repug- 
nance to the profession, and his father remaining firm in 
the purpose for which he had educated him, young Hut- 
son deserted the parental roof and came to America. His 
little money was soon expended, and as a means of sup- 
porting himself he joined a strolling company of players. 
Mr. Whitefield was to preach on the evening preceding 
Mr. Hutson's debut on the stage. Mr. Hutson attended 
and was completely carried away. He had, it was said, 
gone inclined to scoff but remained to pray.^ So great 
was the change which he experienced that he went the 
next morning to Mr. Whitefield and consulted him 
whether he should appear on the stage as he had intended, 
expressing the greatest reluctance to do so. Mr. White- 
field advised that, as he had entered into an engagement 
witli the company which had been announced to the 
public, he should comply with it, perform his part, and 
afterward leave the stage. Mr. Hutson did so, but his 
feelings were so painfully excited that he utterly failed 

^ The scene of this meeting between Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Hutson has 
been variously placed. Whitefield himself states that it was in New York. 
The traiiition of one branch of the Hutson family is that it was in London, 
and of another that it was in Charlestown. (Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 
218.) Circumstances point to the latter as the most probable. 



452 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in the performance of his part. Destitute of the means of 
support upon leaving tlie company, Mr. Hutson, strolling 
about the Bay of Charlestown, attracted the attention of 
Mr. Hugh Bryan, the gentleman whose acquaintance we 
have already made in connection with Mr. Whitefield's 
career in South Carolina. Mr. Bryan, observing him in 
the faded garb of a gentleman, and conjecturing that he 
was a stranger and in need, accosted him and inquired 
into his condition and circumstances. Satisfied with his 
account of himself, Mr. Bryan proposed to him to accom- 
pany him to his residence and to assume the office of tutor 
for his children. Mr. Hutson did so, and became an 
intimate in Mr. Bryan's family, whose widow he subse- 
quently married for his second wife. He was ordained as 
a Congregationalist minister in 1743, and for five years 
was minister of the Independent Church in Charlestown.^ 
A curious and interesting story connects the lives of two 
eminent Presbyterian ministers who came from Scotland 
to Carolina. The Rev. William Richardson and the Rev. 
ArchibPold Simpson were close college companions at the 
University of Glasgow. They were both of strongly reli- 
gious characters and studied and communed together. 
Mr. Richardson was the elder and was graduated before 
Mr. Simpson. The latter kept a diary at the early age of 
fourteen, which he continued during his life,2and in which 
there are constant allusions to his friend " W. R." They 
spent tlieir Saturdays in some retired spot bej^ond the 
noise of the city in acts of devotion. The two friends 
were brought up under the same ministry and the same 
influences. At the age of twentj'^-one Mr. Richardson 
came to America and landed in Philadelphia in 1750. 
After ministering in Virginia he was sent as a missionary 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 248, 249, 264, 310. 

2 This Mss. diary is still preserved in the Charleston Library. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 453 

to the Cherokees in 1758; but upon their taking up arms, 
he was compelled to abandon that mission, and joined the 
presbytery in South Carolina. Mr. Simpson had come out 
to South Carolina in 1753 and was then ministering at Wil- 
ton on the coast. He enters in his journal, the 16th of 
April, 1759: "Dear old comrade W. R. came to my house. 
He was licensed and ordained by a presbytery in Virginia. 
Had gone some months ago a missionary to the Cherokee 
Indians, but finding no good could be done among them, 
as they were inclined to join the French, he has laid down 
his mission and accepted an invitation from a people at 
the Waxhaws about two hundred miles beyond Charles- 
town, is come down to join presbytery and accept their 
call, they being in our bounds." "Thus two college 
friends," says Dr. Howe, "that had studied and prayed 
together in Glasgow and had gone to the house of God in 
company meet in America and commence a ministry on 
these shores which was to be continued for years." ^ 

Mr. Richardson was installed in charge of the Waxhaw 
Church in 1759, but his labors were not confined to that 
particular congregation. Indeed, for seventy miles around 
he seems to have extended his evangelical labors, visiting 
the people and gathering them in many instances into 
regular congregations and churches. The churches in 
Chester and York, and Pacolet church and Fair Forest are 
said to have been founded by him. It is said, too, to have 
been the spirit of those times that those who ministered 
at the altar should live of the altar, and that on Mr. Rich- 
ardson's return from these itinerant tours he would bring 
with him a good deal of money. But Mr. Richardson, 
though a missionary, was a man of some considerable 
means, and as soon as he had settled at the Waxhaws, 
where he purchased lands near the church, he sent out to 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 291. 



454 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

England for his nephew and namesake, William Richard- 
son Davie, then a child, whom he adopted and educated, 
and who, succeeding to his estate, upon his death in 1771, 
devoted it to the raising and equipping of a corps, with 
which he served in the Revolution. Under his careful 
training, says the Rev. Dr. Howe, Davie "became a great 
man in the age of great men, — a patriot, a soldier, a jur- 
ist, a statesman, and a diplomatist, whose abilities were 
admitted and whose services were acknowledged." ^ 

The Rev. Joseph Alexander was another distinguished 
divine. He began to preach about 1765, at a house of 
worship on Brown's Creek, about four miles from the 
present site of the town of Union. This building was in- 
tended to be used in common by Presbyterians and Epis- 
copalians. Hence the name given first to the church, and 
then to the town and county.^ He became distinguished 
as a teacher. Many youths were educated by him in his 
academy at Bullock Creek in York County, and by Mr. 
Humphries at the Waxhaws. These Presbyterian clergy- 
men performed an important part in preparing the men of 
that section for their duties in the great struggle which 
was approaching. The Rev. Mr. Alexander was an ardent 
patriot in the Revolution. So, too, Mr. John Harris, who 
ministered to the congregations at Ninety-six, in what is 
now Abbeville County, was bold, enthusiastic, and inde- 
pendent and peculiarly fitted for the stormy times in which 
he lived. He labored to stamp his own principles of Re- 
publican liberty upon others. It was his boast that every 
man in his congregation was a Whig; but they were 
surrounded by Tories. These devout worshippers often 
bowed before him on their arms, and a tradition asserts 
that he sometimes preached with his gun in the pulpit 
beside him and his ammunition suspended from his neck 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 279, 290, 337, 338, 342. » Ibid., 335. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 455 

after the fashion of the times. ^ Mr. McCaule, who first 
presided over the Mount Zion Society school, went with 
his flock to the camp and was by the side of General 
William Davidson when he fell on the banks of the 
Catawba by the rifle of a Tory.^ Hewatt, the first his- 
torian of South Carolina, the pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church in Charlestown, was a Royalist, together 
with most of his congregation, and left Carolina upon the 
commencement of the Revolution. 

The influence of the clergy of the Congregationalist or 
Independent Church, "The White Meetners," as they 
were sometimes called, was entirely against the Royal 
government. The Rev. William Hutson, of whom we 
have spoken, " an eloquent preacher, an exemplary Chris- 
tian, and an accomplished gentleman," under whom the 
congregation greatly prospered, died just as the differences 
between the colonies and the government at home began ; 
but three of its ministers were to suffer for their princi- 
ples, — two to be exiled, and the third, after taking a most 
distinguished part in the commencement of the struggle, 
was to die before it closed. The venerable Josiah Smith, 
the grandson of Landgrave Thomas Smith, earnestly es- 
poused the cause, though his age and infirmities put it 
out of his power to render any active service ; but so much 
was his influence feared that, upon the surrender of the 
city in the seventy-seventh year of his age, paralyzed as 
he was, he was ordered away from Charlestown and landed 
in Philadelphia, where he shortly after died. The Rev. 
William Tennent, a native of New Jersey, distinguished 
for his learning and piety, was called in 1772 to the pas- 
toral charge of the church. At the opening of the Revo- 
lutionary War he took a strong position in favor of inde- 
pendence, and both by his words and pen aided the cause. 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 439, 442. 2 Ibid., 504. 



456 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

He was sent with William Henry Drayton to arouse the 
spirit of resistance in the upper country; and on the 11th 
of January, 1777, delivered an address in the House of 
Assembly on the subject of religious liberty. This address 
has become historical. He died in the same year. After 
the death of Mr. Tennent, the Rev. James Edmonds kept 
the church open, and during the siege of the town a bomb- 
shell fell in the churchyard while he was conducting the 
service. Upon the surrender of the city Mr. Edmonds 
was arrested and sent on board the prison ship Tartar. 
The church building of the congregation was first used by 
the British as a hospital for the sick and afterward as a 
storehouse for their provisions, and then as a stable. 

At the commencement of the Revolution the Rev. Mr. 
Hart of Pennsylvania had the pastoral care of the Baptist 
Church in Charlestown; he removed to New Jersey, but 
Richard Freeman, a young preacher, succeeded him. He 
was an ardent advocate of rebellion. Everywhere, on 
stumps and in barns, as well as in pulpits, he preached 
resistance to Britain. Pursued by the Tories, young 
Freeman fled to the American camp, and there by his 
prayers and eloquent appeals so reassured the patriots that 
Cornwallis was said to have remarked that "he feared the 
prayers of that godly youth more than the armies of Sumter 
and Marion." 

The influence of the clergy as a whole was thus vastly 
on the side of the Revolutionists. The churchmen of the 
low country, the Presbyterians of the upper, the Con- 
gregationalists and the Baptists of the town, all threw 
their influence against the Crown; and their influence 
was very powerful in Carolina, for the people were gener- 
ally a religious people. 

We have remarked that almost all the clergymen from 
England sided with the people in their struggle with the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 457 

government; it is at least worthy of observation, too, that 
while in other colonies the churchmen were almost always 
Tories, the very reverse was the case in South Carolina. 
The leaders of the Revolution were almost all from the 
old St. Philip's Church. Christopher Gadsden, Henry 
Laurens, Charles Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, Rawlins 
Lowndes, the Rutledges, the Middletons, William John- 
son, John Laurens, father of Henry, and Daniel Cannon 
were all parishioners of the old church. James Parsons, 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Miles Brewton were 
from St. Michael's. Thomas Lynch and his son were 
parishioners of the church in Prince George, Winyaw, 
Thomas Heyward from St. Helena's, and William Henry 
Drayton from St. Andrew's. The great mistake the British 
made in the invasion of the upper part of the province was 
in supposing all the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians there were 
enemies to the Royal government because they were Dis- 
senters, and the New England Dissenters had excited the 
war. On the contrary, as we have seen, those people had 
come too recently into the province to have become amal- 
gamated in sentiment with those on the coast. They had 
not been consulted as to the movements there in the incep- 
tion of the difficulties, and had no representation in the 
assemblies which had been quarrelling with Boone and 
Montague. But fortunately, says Judge Johnson, in his 
Life of Green, the British felt too confident in themselves 
or too much contempt for the enemy to act with moderation 
or policy. Amidst the infatuation of power and victory 
their commander appears to have forgotten that a nation 
may submit to conquest but never to insult. They seem 
to have forgotten also that religion, which looks to another 
world for its recompense, becomes the most formidable 
enemy that can be raised in this. As the Dissenters of 
New England had the reputation of having excited tlie 



458 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

war, Dissenters generally became objects of odium to tlie 
enemy. Hence their meeting-houses were often burnt and 
destroyed. The Independent Church in Charlestown had, 
Ave have seen, been used as a stable ; in the Waxhaws the 
minister was insulted, his house and books burnt, and war 
declared against all Bibles which contained the Scotch 
version of the Psalms. Thus it was that they revived 
in the upper country the struggle they had practicall}^ 
crushed on the coast, and enlisted in behalf of indepen- 
dence the exertions of some of the ablest and most devout 
of the Presbyterian clergy. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

In his History of South Carolina under the Proprietary 
Government the author has pointed out that there is no 
record of any lawyer in the province until the advent of 
Nicholas Trott in 1698.^ The names of but six others 
besides Trott who practised during the Proprietary gov- 
ernment have come down to us, viz. William Sanders, 
Attorney General, 1708-10; George Evans, Attorney 
General, 1710-16; Richard Pindar and George Rodd, 
Attorney Generals after Pindar; Richard Allein, Attorney 

1 The author's statement in his volume on the Proprietary government 
that it is not known tliat there was a single professional lawyer in the 
province prior to the coming of Nicholas Trott, and that during the Royal 
period judicial offices were often held by laymen, has been questioned 
{The Virginia Magazine, of History and Biography, October, 1898, 222, 
Book Reviews). But no such professional lawyer has been mentioned by 
the Reviewer, and until some one is found the author must adhere to his 
opinion that there were none. The Reviewer has probably been led astray 
by his failure to observe the difference between an attorney in fact and 
an attorney at law ; the former being mere agents appohited in each in- 
stance by deed for the transaction of general business. There are many 
such appointments in the Miscellaneous Records in the Probate Office at 
Charleston, but attorneys so appointed were not lawyers. In new settle- 
ments of the professions, the physician usually appears first, then the 
clergyman, then the lawyer. The latter does not appear until the country 
is more or less settled and courts are organized. The provision of the 
Fundamental Constitutions prohibiting any one from pleading for fee or 
reward was a special barrier to the coming of lawyers to South Carolina. 
That during the Royal period judicial officers were often held by laymen 
is a notorious fact, numerous instances of which appear in this volume, 
and was, we shall see, the subject of comment and discussion at the time 
— a matter entering into the politics of the Royal government. 

459 



460 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

General in 1718; and Thomas Hepworth, who took part 
with Attorney General Allein in the famous trial of Steele 
Bonnet and the other pirates. 

During the period of the Royal government the members 
of the bar began to exercise an influence in the colony, 
which became still greater during the revolutionary era, 
and has continued so in the State to the present day. A 
brief sketch of the administration of justice during the 
time of which we now treat will not only be of interest, 
but necessary, indeed, to understand the influences which 
led to the part which South Carolina took in the great 
Revolution. 

Under the Royal government practically there were but 
two courts of general jurisdiction in the province : (1) the 
Court of Common Pleas, or, as sometimes called, the 
Supreme or General Court at Charlestown. This was 
presided over by the Chief Justice and four assistants, but 
could be held by the Chief Justice alone, or, in his absence, 
by not less than two of his assistants. (2) The court of 
General Sessions for the trial of all offences punishable 
with death, presided over by the Chief Justice, or, in his 
absence, by any two or more of the assistant judges, under 
a commission of oyer and terminer, assize, and general 
jail delivery. 1 

Trott, as we have seen, was the only professional lawyer 
who held the office of Chief Justice under the Proprietary 
government; nor was the gown of a regular member of the 
bar, even under the Royal government, an indispensable 
qualification for the position. We shall see several in- 
stances in which it was filled by laymen, and none but 
laymen were ever assistant judges. Chief Justice Wright 
complains to the Board of Trade in 1733 of an act em- 

1 Administration of Justice in So. Ca. (H. A. M. Smith) ; Year Book 
City of Charleston, 1884, 321. 



TTNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 461 

powering the Governor to nominate assistant justices, 
and that under it Governor Johnson had granted commis- 
sions to Thomas Dale and Thomas Lamboll, persons 
entirely ignorant of the law, who assumed to overrule 
him whenever they thought proper. ^ The act referred to 
by the Chief Justice was no doubt that of which we have 
spoken in the first chapter as passed by the revolutionary 
legislature under Governor James Moore, and which, 
though approved and allowed by neither Proprietors nor 
King, Governor Glen wrote was affected to be called the 
Magna Carta of Carolina.^ As we have said, there is no 
copy of it in existence. The Chief Justice was a salaried 
and feed office. The assistant judges served without pay 
or emolument of any kind, simply for the honor of the 
position and the good of the community, as did the 
Magistrates in England. The officers of these courts, 
with the exception of the assistant judges, were appointed 
by his Majesty the King; the assistant judges, until the 
act of 1769 establishing circuit courts, which did not, how- 
ever, go into effect until 1772, were appointed by the 
Governors. The other officers were the Attorney General, 
the Clerk of the Court, and the Provost Marshal or High 
Sheriff, who had royal patents or commissions for their 
offices. Of the last we shall have occasion later to give 
a more particular account. 

During the Provisional government, which continued 
for ten years after the overthrow of the Proprietors (1719- 
1729), dual sets of these officers were appointed: one by the 
King under his Provisional government, while negotiations 
were going on for the surrender of the charters, which were 
not yet consummated, and which set actually held and ad- 
ministered the offices; the other by the Lords Proprietors, 
who made appointments by way of the assertion of their 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 304. 2 j^^v^, vol. II, 309. 



462 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

right to do so, though their appointees could not exercise 
the powers of their offices. Thus, abandoning Trott, they 
appointed Thomas Kimberley of the Middle Temple Chief 
Justice in 1724, i and Robert Wright in 1727.2 

Upon the overthrow of the Proprietary government it 
will be recollected Richard Allein, the Attorney General 
who had joined in the memorial against Trott, was chosen 
by the Assembly as Chief Justice and allowed a salary of 
£800 currency per annum; and he having been made 
President of the Council, Francis Yonge, a layman, was 
chosen to succeed him, and held the office until super- 
seded by Charles Hill under Nicholson's government. 

Though these had occupied the position of Chief Justice 
during this time, Trott had by no means given up his 
claim to the office. He was still in England trying to 
induce the new government to print his collection of laws ; 
but in this he was thwarted by President Middleton, who 
wrote to Governor Nicholson, then in England, May 4, 
1727, declaring the proposal unreasonable, and that "he 
would never give in to it."^ This was a great mistake on 
the part of the new government. Whatever were Trott's 
faults, his ability for such work was beyond question, and 
his collection of laws afterward published remains to this 
day a memorial alike of his wisdom and industry and of 
the littleness of party spirit which refused so long to give 
the province the benefit of his great work. On the 6th of 
September, 1728, Trott writes to the Bishop of London 
concerning his progress upon a work — " his Explication 
of the Hehreiv Text of the Old Testament — and makes 
proposals for procuring subscriptions and printing said 
work; prays him to use his interest with the King that he 
again be restored to his office of Chief Justice of South Caro- 

1 Coll. Hik. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 196. 
2/Md,198. 8/&jU,243. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 463 

lina."^ But abandoned and forgotten by the Proprietors, 
he was not taken up by the King, and, as we have seen, 
returned to Charlestown, where he lived in retirement 
but busy upon his Explication^ until his death in 1740. ^ 

During the temporary government of Sir Francis Nichol- 
son, Charles Hill was Chief Justice from 1722 to 1724; 
Thomas Hepworth from 1724 to 1727, and Richard Allein 
again from 1727 to 1730. Then followed the arrangement 
of which we have spoken, by which the Royal government 
accepted Robert Wright, who had been appointed by the 
Proprietors upon his surrender of the doubtful life tenure 
under them for one durante hefie pladto under the Crown. 
Of Chief Justice Wright's character and of his firm main- 
tenance of the independence of the bench and bar against 
the encroachments of the legislative branch of the govern- 
ment, we have already treated at some length in a previous 
chapter. The struggle was one of great importance in the 
settlement of the powers of the different departments of 
government, legislative, executive, and judicial, and South 
Carolina may well be proud to-day that her Chief Justice 
is entitled to a place beside Holt for the ability and 
courage with which they asserted and maintained the in- 
dependence of the judiciary. 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Co., vol. I, 245. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 694. The statement 
by the author that this Nicholas Trott had formerly been Governor of the 
Bahama Islands before coming to Carolina, in his volume on the Proprie- 
tary government, was made upon the direct and positive statement of 
Oldmixon, who was not only a contemporary but in a position particularly 
to know the truth. (Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 421.) Hewatt apparently 
adopted Oldmixon's statement (Ibid., vol. I, 125). The author has been 
convinced, however, that Oldmixon's statement is incorrect. The power 
of attorney mentioned by the author in his work on the Proprietary gov- 
ernment at page 387 is conclusive upon the subject. The Nicholas Trott 
who was Governor of the Bahama Islands was the one known as Nicholas 
Trott of Loudon. 



464 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Upon the death of Chief Justice Wright in 1739 Lieu- 
tenant Governor Bull (the first) gave a special commission 
to Thomas Dale, the lay assistant judge of whom we have 
just seen the Chief Justice complaining, to hold the Court 
of Sessions pro Jiac vice, as a sufficient number of the 
Council could not, on account of the smallpox then in 
the town, be assembled. ^ On the 7th of November fol- 
lowing, the Council met, and Benjamin Whitaker, the 
Attorney General, was appointed by the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor and Council ad interim until his Majesty's pleasure 
could be known. 2 Chief Justice Whitaker's appointment 
seems to have been confirmed by the Royal government, 
though we have found no record of it. Governor Glen, 
nine years after, complains to the Duke of Bedford, that 
Mr. Whitaker, the Chief Justice, has been for several 
years so infirm by an apoplectic and paralytic disorder as 
to be unfit for the post. He had given him leave of 
absence to go to Europe for a year to recruit his health ; 
he, however, stayed two, and returned worse than when 
he left. His Excellency goes on to say that the Chief 
Justice had not notified him upon his return, but had care- 
fully avoided meeting him ; that, in addition to this, his 
behavior had been resented by all ranks, and the Council 
had voted his post vacant and advised him to appoint James 
Graeme, which he had done ; Mr. Graeme had practised the 
law for many years, about eight years since had been ap- 
pointed Judge of the Vice Admiralty Court, and was a 
steady supporter of his Majesty's administration: his 
appointment would give universal satisfaction.^ But 
Chief Justice Whitaker could not be gotten rid of so 
easily. It was not until 1751 that he was superseded by 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, October 24, 1739. 

2 Ibid., November ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 273. 
8 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 304. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 465 

Graeme.^ Chief Justice Graeme did not live a year after 
his appointment; he died on the 7th of September, 1752.2 
Then followed the interesting episode of the appointment 
of Mr. Charles Pinckney by the Governor and Council, 
and his supersedure by the Royal government to make 
room for Mr. Peter Leigh from London, a full account of 
which we have already given. 

On the death of Chief Justice Leigh on the 21st of July, 
1759, James Michie held one term by the appointment of 
the Governor and was succeeded by William Simpson, 
Clerk of the Court, another who was not a lawyer.^ 
These appointments were but temporary; but the next, 
from the home government, was an infamous one. Mr. 
Leigh, whatever were the circumstances under which he 
came, was a gentleman and a lawyer; Charles Shinner, 
who succeeded him, was a vulgar bully and blackguard, 
and had not the redeeming quality of the least profes- 
sional education. Shinner was sent out as Chief Justice 
in 1762, through the influence, it was said, of the mistress 
of Lord Halifax, who was then at the head of the Board 
of Trade and Plantations.^ "I do not wonder that the 
province was dissatisfied with their Chief Justice," wrote 
Cumberland, Clerk of the Board and Provost Marshal of 
South Carolina, to his deputy, Roger Pinckney; "for the 
little I saw of him did not give me advantageous impres- 
sions."^ A writer in the /St. James Chronicle is more 
explicit, and while giving a diiTerent account of the influ- 
ence through which he was appointed, thus describes the 
man who was sent out as Chief Justice of South Carolina. 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, October 3, 1751. 

^ Ibid., September, 1752. 

3 Ibid., July 25, 1759 ; Johnson's Life of Green, vol. I, 256, note. 

* Johnson's Life of Green, supra. 

^ Documents connected toith So. Ca. (P. C. I. Weston), 112. 

VOL. II — 2 H 



466 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

He says Shinner was an Irishman of the lowest class, with 
no better education than is usually given to qualify one 
for the meanest mechanical trade. And to such a trade 
Shinner had indeed been brought up, but had quitted it 
as too confined for his enterprising genius, and had risen 
through a series of those various shifts and changes which 
checker the lives of needy adventurers to the respectable 
office of messenger to carry backward and forward for 
hire between the courts of England and Ireland Bills and 
Answers in Equity which had to be authenticated. Hav- 
ing had the good fortune to render some service to a lady 
who was enCTacyed in a lawsuit in Ireland, she recommended 
him to her brother, then in a high office. The com- 
placent brother, after considering for some time what could 
be done for the vulgar, illiterate ignoramus, unfit for any 
place of credit at home, thought proper to send him as 
Chief Justice to one of the principal colonies of America 
to sit in judgment on the fortunes, liberties, and lives of 
his Majesty's subjects there. ^ 

With this introduction of the Chief Justice it is not 
surprising that we have this account of his judicial career 
in South Carolina. On the 9th of April, 1767, Christopher 
Gadsden reported from a committee appointed by the Gen- 
eral Assembly to inquire into the state of the courts of 
justice, that from the testimony, common observation, and 
the notoriety of the subject, the Chief Justice was a person 
wholly unacquainted with the common law, acts of Parlia- 
ment, or acts of Assembly of the province ; that his conduct 
manifested such ignorance as to show him to be utterly 
unfit for a place of so much consequence. The report of 
the committee gives some instances of his misconduct; 
one of these was his sending to jail without warrant or 
mittimus a wagoner, because, as he alleged, the wagoner 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, May G, 1766. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 467 

had smacked his whip as the Chief Justice was passing 
along in his chaise, and had frightened his honor's horse. 
Aiiotlier was his carrying to jail with pistol in hand one 
William Smith, and personally delivering him to the 
jailer, likewise without warrant or mittimus, because, as 
he alleged. Smith had threatened the life of one Elizabeth 
Brown with whom the Chief Justice was living. The 
report went on further to state that to cover up this matter 
he had endeavored to induce the jailer, one Dunnovan, to 
abduct Smith and to smuggle him off in a vessel about to 
sail, and then to put the blame of his doing so upon one 
O'Brien, an attorney, whom Shinner had living with him. 
But Dunnovan, upon whose complicity the Chief Justice 
had relied, — because he was a fellow-countryman, — 
betrayed him and handed the letter to Mr. Pinckney, 
the Provost Marshal. The report also charged that he 
behaved in court with the utmost ludicrousness and 
indecency. Once, having had a party brought into the 
Admiralty Court, he called him "a damned rascal" from 
the Bench. Upon another occasion he expressed the hope 
that he would have an opportunity of passing sentence 
of death upon certain parties before him. He seldom 
failed, the report stated, to attend the execution of his 
own sentences imposing corporal punishment on crimi- 
nals, strolling about the streets with the attending mobs, 
and acting a part on such occasions, the committee say, 
beneath the character even of an executioner. To this 
report the Chief Justice made an ingenious and elaborate 
reply, which, if written by himself, showed him to be 
a man of some parts and belied the charge of want of 
education. But it is not improbable that this paper, 
as well as a very able one in regard to the Stamp act, 
which we shall have occasion to consider, were pro 
pared for him by some one else. However that may be, 



468 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

though he endeavored to persuade his Excellency Lord 
Charles Montague, the Governor, that the whole charge 
was a device of the "Liberty Boys" to avenge them- 
selves upon him for doing his duty to his Majesty in the 
matter of the Stamp act, he made no impression upon 
the Governor, who suspended him until his Majesty's 
pleasure should be further known. ^ This man was Chief 
Justice during the important period of the struggle over 
the Stamp act. We shall have to tell of his conduct 
upon that occasion. 

The G-azette of the 15th of June, 1769, announces that 
a mandamus 2 for the appointment of Mr. William Wragg 
as Chief Justice had arrived. This appointment was no 
doubt made in recognition of Mr. Wragg's unwavering 
loyalty and devoted support of the government, not only 
in regard to the Stamp act and in opposition to the non- 
importation agreement, but on all the questions which had 
arisen between the government at home and the people of 
the colony, and except that Mr. Wragg was not a lawyer, — 
a circumstance about which, as we have seen, the govern- 
ment was not very particular, — upon no person could the 
high honor have been more worthily bestowed. The office 
was offered and even pressed upon Mr. Wragg by the 
Secretary of State, upon the express command of his 
Majesty King George the Third. His reasons for declin- 
ing are, as Dr. Ramsay says, a proof of his disinterested- 
ness and delicacy. He had openly, for reasons publicly 
given, refused to sign the association entered into by 
many of his people to suspend the importation or purchase 
of manufactures till the impositions of the British Parlia- 

1 House Journal (MSS.), Book 37, 351. 

2 The writ or commission by which a Chief Justice was appointed was 
styled a mandamus, i.e. a precept commanding that the person named be 
recognized and obeyed as Chief Justice or other officer. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 4(i9 

ment were removed. It was after he had adopted this 
decisive line of conduct that, without his knowledge, the 
commission of Chief Justice had been sent to him. He 
returned it, giving for reason that no man should say that 
" the hope of preferment had influenced his preceding con- 
duct." The next issue of the Gazette announced that Mr. 
Wragg declined the appointment, adhering to his pur- 
pose of retiring from all public affairs. This, however, 
we shall see was impossible for one of his position to do 
in the coming stormy time ; and he was to perish at sea, 
exiled from his native land and home. 

Upon the assumption of government by Lord North in 
1767 the affairs of the colonies were taken from the Board 
of Trade and intrusted to Lord Hillsborough as Secretary 
of State. His Lordship, who was an Irishman, vacated 
many existing commissions in the colonies to make room 
for his Irish dependents. In South Carolina Shinner's 
removal, and Mr. Wragg's refusal to take the office, saved 
him the trouble of vacating a commission, and the new 
Circuit Court act, which had at length gone in-to operation 
in 1772, afforded him three more paid offices on the Bench 
to be filled by his favorites. The last Chief Justice to sit 
under English rule was Thomas Knox Gordon, a lawyer 
of Dublin, who was appointed by Hillsborough in the 
latter part of 1770, but he did not take his seat until 1771. 
His commission did not constitute him Judge in Admi- 
ralty, as had been the case of some other of the Chief 
Justices. The assistant judges sent were Edward Savage, 
John Murray, and John Fewtrell ; one of these, we are 
told, was a Scotchman, another a Welshman, the third 
we suppose was an Englishman. 

These great abuses in the administration of the law; 
the use of the Bench as a place of reward for partisan ser- 
vices in England; strangers thus appointed even to the 



470 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

displacement of natives of the highest character and abil- 
ity; the appointment of a vulgar, ignorant bully as Chief 
Justice, for the gratification of a mistress of a secretary; 
the monopoly of the office of Provost Marshal or High 
Sheriff by one person for the whole province, and that as 
a sinecure for a non-resident; the monstrous requirement, 
as we shall see, that the colony must pay this absent sine- 
curist an enormous sum for the right to provide its own 
courts with officers to execute their decrees ; the adminis- 
tration of judicial offices such as that of a Court of Ad- 
miralty by a jDractising attorney, — all constituted just 
grounds of complaint against the government in England, 
which had much to do with the alienation of the affections 
of the peojjle. And yet it is remarkable that these great 
abuses are not relied upon, or even alluded to, in the 
State papers of the times that we have been able to find, 
except in one instance. 

In a letter written by William Henry Drayton over his 
usual signature, "Freeman," addressed to the deputies of 
North Amei-ica assembled in Congress in Philadelphia in 
1774, stating the grievances of America, one of these 
peculiarly affecting this province is thus presented. . . . 
" A few years ago the bench of justice of this colony was 
filled with men of property, and if all of them were not 
learned in law there, some among them who taught their 
brethren to administer justice with public approbation, 
and one of them in particular, had so well digested his 
reading — although he never eat commons at the Tern pi o 
— that he was without dispute at least equal to the law 
learning of the present Bench." 

This encomium of the lay assistant judges was most 
justly deserved. Such men as Joseph Wragg, Isaac 
Mazyck, Rawlins Lowndes, Robert Pringle, Benjamin 
Smith, and George Gabriel Powell gave character and 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 471 

dignity to the Bench which more than compensated for 
their want of professional training. The opinion of Raw- 
lins Lowndes, to whom Mr. Drayton referred in the last 
sentence quoted, that ordering the release of Thomas 
Powell, the printer, arrested by the order of Sir Egerton 
Leigh as President of the Council, of which we shall have 
to tell hereafter, justifies Mr. Drayton in his estimate of 
Mr. Lowndes's legal ability. Mr. Lowndes, however, 
though not a regularly bred lawyer, had been Provost 
Marshal from his youth, and so connected with the ad- 
ministration of the law for many years. Thus he had 
been at a better school than the commons in the Temple, 
the school of the Bench, the best of all schools if one has 
but the patience and capacity to give attention and learn 
there. 

We have mentioned that the office of Judge of Ad- 
miralty was filled by Sir Egerton Leigh just before the 
Revolution. Sir Egerton was the only son of Chief Jus- 
tice Peter Leigh. He was a monopolist. He held the 
various offices in the province, of Attorney General, 
Surveyor General, Judge of Admiralty, and member of 
Council, and was created a Baronet in 1772. He was a 
man of learning and abilit}^ but certainly not fitted for 
the judicial position which he occupied, and from his 
temper was one least fitted to combine the dignity of the 
Bench with a suitable conduct in the daily affairs of the 
bar, while at the same time practising as Attorney Gen- 
eral. His intimate friend, Colonel Henry Laurens, con- 
sidering himself aggrieved by a judicial decision of Sir 
Egerton, adopted the unwise and improper course of pub- 
lishing a pamphlet calling the judgment in question. 
Instead of treating this attack upon his judicial conduct 
as a contempt of court, or passing it by in dignified 
silence, Sir Egerton, with still greater impropriety, an- 



472 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

swered it in another pamphlet, entitled The Man Unmasked, 
the forthcoming of which was advertised in the Gazette of 
the day in conspicuous type and with flaming notices. The 
answer thus heralded was a most wanton and scurrilous 
attack upon the character of Colonel Laurens. Colonel 
Laurens replied and distributed copies of the correspon- 
dence, not only throughout the American colonies, but in 
England and the West Indies. The publications com- 
pelled Sir Egerton to resign either his seat on the Bench 
or his commission as Attorney General. In this dilemma 
between station and profit he resigned his seat as Judge 
in Admiralty. This controversy contributed its part in 
estranging the people from the government at home. 

We find Sir Egerton also intervening to embarrass the 
General Assembly in their endeavor to establish courts in 
the upper part of the province, for which there was so 
much need, and for which the people of that section were 
memorializing and petitioning the General Assembly. 
Upon the passage of a bill establishing Circuit Courts, on 
the 5th of January, 1768, he presents a memorial to the 
Assembly setting up his patent from the King for the office 
of Attorney General, which granted him the enjoyment 
of all salaries, allowances, fees, profits, privileges, and 
emoluments thereunto belonging in as full a manner as 
any other person had theretofore held and enjo3'ed them, 
and prays therefore that his right in the matter shall be 
regarded. A motion was made in the Commons to take 
care of these vested rights by allowing salaries for himself 
and the clerk, Dougal Campbell, who had also set up a 
patent for his office ; but, as we are not sorry to have to 
record, it was passed in the negative. 

Though, as the Fundamental Constitutions of Locke 
were not adopted, the prohibition against counsel in Caro- 
lina receiving money or reward for pleading another's 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 473 

cause was never of actual force, at least some of its 
chivalric spirit Lad impressed its influence upon the pro- 
fession in the province ; for in the earliest minutes we 
have of the Council sitting as a Court of Chancery, the 
17th of December, 1724, we find this curious order: — 

" Upon reading the Petition and affidavits of Joseph Scott and 
Anne his wife preferred to this Court, setting forth that he is a very 
poor man and not worth £5 in the whole world, and therefore praying 
that he may be admitted in forma pauperis to commence suit in this 
hon**'® Court against Daniel Fidding & others for divers, unjust, and 
collusive dealings with the petitioner and that council may be as- 
signed him ; and Mr. Whitaker thereupon moving the Court in the 
Petitioner's behalf, the Court doth grant the prayer of the petitioner 
and doth assign Mr. Whitaker to be of council accordingly." 

It is still customary with us, it is true, for the court to 
assign counsel to advise and defend a person charged with 
crime, if without the means of retaining one; but this 
duty is usually assigned to some young lawyer. But here 
we find the court assigning its most distinguished counsel, 
the Attorney General, who was in a few years the Chief 
Justice, to defend the cause of the poor and the oppressed. 

In these minutes we find the names of Robert Hume, 

Thomas EUery, Richard Allein, William Blakney, 

Carrington, Henry Hargrave, Thomas Kimberly, David 
Graeme, John Lewis, and James Wright as the counsel, 
who, with the Attorney General Whitaker, appear to have 
had the business of the court for the first years of the 
Royal government. It was during this period that the 
name of Pinckney takes a place in the history of South 
Carolina, which it has never since lost. Charles Pinckney, 
of whom we have spoken, was, we believe, the first native 
lawyer in the colony. He became Attorney General in 
1736, and, as we have seen, filled the position of Chief 
Justice for a short time — a position from whicli he was 



474 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

removed to make place for an Englishman for whom the 
government at home had to provide. Soon after he was 
removed from the Bench he sailed for England with his 
family for the education of his sons, Charles Cotesworth 
and Thomas, who were to add so much lustre to a name 
he had already distinguished. He took with him also, to 
be educated with his sons, another lad, who was to be 
scarcely less known in the history of the State, William 
Henry Drayton, the first Chief Justice under the govern- 
ment of the State of South Carolina. His nephew. Colonel 
Charles Pinckney, was also a lawyer of great distinction, 
one of the leaders in the Revolutionary movement and 
President of the Council. 

Another historic name to be closely associated with that 
of Pinckney appears about this time. Andrew Rutledge, 
with his brother, Dr. John Rutledge, natives of Ireland, ar- 
rived in Carolina, as we have seen, in the years 1730-1735. 
They practised the one the law and the other medicine. 
Dr. John Rutledge, as already mentioned, was the father 
of the remarkable trio of sons, all lawyers. Andrew Rut- 
ledge died in 1755 without issue; but he most favorably 
introduced the name of Rutledge into the affairs of the 
colony. In three years after his arrival we find him ap- 
pointed by Lieutenant Governor Bull Adjutant General 
upon the organization of the militia upon an expected 
invasion by the Spaniards. In 1740 he appears before the 
ecclesiastical court held in St. Philip's Church in behalf 
of George Whitefield, who was there arraigned upon arti- 
cles preferred against him by the Rev. Commissary Garden, 
and supports the exceptions of Whitefield to the jurisdic- 
tion of the court as constituted by the Commissary. He 
was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1750, 1751, and 
1752. 

Another who rose to distinction at the bar and in the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 475 

affairs of the colony during this period was Peter Mani- 
gaiilt. Mr. Manigault was educated in England and 
called to the bar there and rode his circuit before return- 
ing to South Carolina to practise. He always signed 
himself " Peter Manigault, Barrister of the Inner Temple. " 
He was Speaker of the Commons during the struggle in 
regard to the Stamp act and the controversy with the Gov- 
ernor and Council about the contribution to the Wilkes's 
fund. The last House over which he presided was that 
called by Lord Charles Greville Montague at Beaufort. 

With the prosperity of the province legal business 
greatly increased, and though admission to the bar was 
rarely conferred on any other than regularly bred lawyers 
who had attended their terms at Westminster, in the 
twenty-seven years immediatel}^ preceding the Revolution 
fifty-eight gentlemen were added to the roll of attorneys 
and counsellors.^ In a list of the Americans admitted as 
members of the Inns of Court in London in the twenty- 
five years from 1759 to 1786 recently published, South 
Carolina contributes more than any other State. ^ Out of 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 159. 

2 The following are the South Carolinians: — 

Middle Temple. C. C. Pinckney, John Mathews, 1764 ; Paul Trapier 
and Thomas Lynch, 1767 ; Alexander Moultrie, Richard Shubrick, Philip 
Neyle, James Perroneau, 1768 ; William Oliphant, John Faucheraud 
Grimk^, 1769 ; William Ward Burrows, William Hayward, John Laurens, 
1772 ; Richard Berresford, Charles Pinckney, Thomas Shubrick, Henry 
Nicholas, John Julius Pringle," 1773 ; Benjamin Smith, William Smith, 
1774 ; William Simpson, John Parker, Ilext McCall, 1775 ; Charles Bull, 
1776 ; James Smith, Joseph Manigault, Daniel Horry, 1781 ; Peter 
Porcher, John Gaillard, Theodore Gaillard, Archibald Yonge, 1782 ; 
Thomas Simons, William Mazyck, 1783 ; George Boone Roupel, Henry 
Gibbs, 1785 ; William Allen Deas, 1786. 

Inner Temple. John Perroneau, 1772. 

Lincohi's Inn. Francis Kinloch, 1774 ; William Walton, John Stuart, 

John Julius Pringle's bond as a fellow, now before us, shows that he was a member of 
LintioliVs Inn. 



476 HTSTOEY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

114 names on this list, there are 46 Carolinians, 20 
Virginians, 15 Marylanders, 3 Georgians, and 1 North 
Carolinian, making 85 Southerners, three-fourths of the 
whole. 1 These figures are significant as indicating 
how much closer were the relations of the people of the 
Southern provinces to England than those of the Northern; 
especially it will be observed that this was the case with 
the South Carolinians. Each of these young gentlemen 
had to find security in London upon his bond for dues to 
the Society of the Inn in which he matriculated, which 
in itself implied a close correspondence between the two 
communities. In George the Second's time it was said 
a young Templar expected his father to allow him <£150 
a year, and on encouragement would spend twice that 
amount in the same time.^ We may be sure that these 
young gentlemen, who perhaps had something to do with 
forming Richard Cumberland's idea of the typical West 
Indian ^ or American, expected no less an income from 
their fathers in the reign of George the Third. 

In a letter of Peter Manigault to his father in Charles- 
town, from London dated the 26th of February, 1754, upon 
his being called to the bar of the Inner Temple at the last 
Hillary term, the expense upon the occasion is given as 
£50 sterling, including gown, tye, wigg, and bands. This 
allowance, together with the expense of the voyage to 
and from England, formed, it may well be supposed, a 
considerable drain upon the people of Carolina, attention 
to which began to be drawn. 

1775 ; Robert Williams, Gabriel Manigault, 1777 ; Alexander Garden, 
1779 ; Thomas Bee, 1782. 

1 Hist, of Higher Education in So. Ca. (Colyer Meriwether), U. S. 
Bureau of Education, 1889, 25, 26. 

2 A Book abont Lawyers, Jefferson, 297. 

3 The West Indian, a comedy by Richard Cumberland, 1771. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 477 

The return of these young gentlemen to the province 
had much to do with the encouragement of the spirit of 
revolution which had already arisen in other classes in the 
community. Scattered amidst the various seminaries of 
England as they had been before entering the Inns of 
Court, they inbibed at these vigorous fountains of knowl- 
edge the invincible spirit which afterward enabled them, 
both in the Council and in the field, to combat with success 
her attempt at their subjugation. It was, moreover, a 
circumstance of great influence upon the conduct and life 
of these young men, that most of them when they left home 
were recommended to the patronage and kindness of the 
great Whig families in England, and many of them to 
the most distinguished peers in the British Parliament, 
who were at that time conspicuous for their opposition to 
the ministry and for devotion to the cause of the colonies.^ 
In an admirable letter of advice and instruction written 
by John Rutledge to his younger brother, Edward, upon 
his going to England to pursue the study of the law, he 
charges him to exert himself to the utmost by some means 
or other to attend the House of Commons constantly, or at 
least whenever anything of consequence was to come on. 
He warns him he will not be suffered to take notes, but 
he must get in by some means. Probably Mr. Garth, the 
agent for South Carolina, would help him. He writes : — 

" Don't say that they have come to a resolution not to admit 
strangers and by that means you could not get in. . . . I know it is 
a common order to clear the galleries, but that people generally fall 
back and no notice is taken of them; for you must at all events get 
admittance there and make yourself acquainted with the speakers. 
Keading lectures upon oratory will never make you an orator. This 
must be obtained by hearing and observation of those who are allowed 

' Sanders's Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
vol. V, 16. 



478 HISTOflY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to be good speakers — not of every conceited chap who may pretend 
to be so. I would also have you attend the House of Lords upon 
every occasion worth it. You will find you may easily get introduced 
to some Lord who will take you in with him, and by no means spare 
a few guineas at Christmas among the door keepers, etc., for that I 
warrant will do the business." ^ 

Thus tlirough the patronage of the Whig Lords and a 
few of the guineas which their fathers' rice and indigo 
afforded, .these young gentlemen crowded the galleries of 
the Commons, we may be sure, when the Stamp act, " The 
folly of England and the Ruin of America," was to be 
discussed by the silver-tongued Murray, afterward Lord 
Mansfield, the most graceful, luminous, and subtle of all 
legal speakers, as he was described; by Fox with his clear, 
strong sense, his indomitable courage, and his admirable 
tact; and, best of all, by the elder Pitt, possessing, as it 
has been said, every personal advantage that an orator 
could desire, a singularly graceful form, a voice of won- 
derful compass and melody, which he modulated with 
consummate skill, an eye of such piercing brightness and 
such commanding power that it gave an air of inspiration to 
his speaking and added a peculiar terror to his invective. 
We may be sure that they were there in the galleries 
catching every word as, in reply to Grenville, Pitt ex- 
claimed: "I rejoice that America has resisted. Three 
millions of people so dead to all feelings of liberty as 
voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit 
instruments to make slaves of the rest." They were 
there, no doubt, to hear the great debates over Wilkes 
and "No. 45 North Britton " and his expulsion and reelec- 
tion to the House, and very possibly added a few shillings 
of their own to the pounds their fathers were smuggling 
through the tax -bills at home in spite of the Governor and 

1 O'Neall's Bench and Bar of So. Ca., vol. II, 120. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 479 

Council, and which Peter Manigault, as Speaker, and 
Messrs. Gadsden, Rutledge, Parsons, Ferguson, and Dart 
were sending to England avowedly to be applied to an 
association for the maintenance of the constitutional right 
and liberties of the people of Great Britain and America, 
but which were to be applied, as they must very well have 
known they would be, to Wilkes's own private debts and 
expenses. These young gentlemen studying law in the 
Temple — "Templars," as they were called — no doubt 
took the denunciation of the ministry and the declarations 
of devotion to the American cause all in earnest, without, 
perhaps, the limitation Pitt himself would certainly have 
put upon them, to wit, provided the fight was to be made 
within the Kingdom of England and not for independence. 
They did not realize, as their fathers at home did, that 
tlie fight in England was all party politics there, nor im- 
agine that when in the course of events the colonies 
should think that, having gone so far for liberty within 
the Kingdom, they would take the next inevitable 
step to secure their independence as well, that Chatham, 
wrapped in flannel and supported on crutches, would have 
himself carried to the House of Lords to make his last 
and actually dying speech against the withdrawal of the 
English forces by land and sea from the revolted colonies, 
and with something of his old fire protest "against the 
dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy." 
Was it nothing more than an unmeaning coincidence that 
a British cannon-ball should knock off the outstretched 
arm of the statue representing Chatham pleading for their 
lil)erties, which the Assembly of Carolina had procured and 
the people had raised in Charleston with wild hurrahs? 

These young gentlemen returning home burning with 
a sense of the wrongs, as they had heard them described 
by Pitt aiul Burke and Barrd, stirred with ambition to 



480 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rival the great orators and statesmen to whom they had 
listened, and finding all places of distinction and honor 
filled by favorites of the Board of Trade or Secretary for 
the colonies, — some of worse than questionable characters, 
— to the exclusion of the natives of the province, and 
naturally wishing for a government and Parliament of 
their own, in which they might have some opportunity of 
imitating and perhaps equalling the great men at West- 
minster, eagerly listened to the calls of the artisans and 
mechanics who, under Gadsden's lead, were already on 
the road to revolution. 

It has been said that the bar may be considered a very 
fair exponent of the educated opinion of a people.^ In 
1775 there were thirty-five members of the bar in South 
Carolina. In numbers these were very nearly equally 
divided upon the questions which were agitating the 
colonies ; but on looking over the list it is clear that the 
highest character and ability were with the revolutionary 
party. James Parsons, Charles Pinckney, John Rutledge, 
John Mathews, Hugh Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney, Thomas Hey ward, Jr., Alexander Moultrie, 
and Edward Rutledge doubtless composed the greatest 
strength of the bar. But James Simpson, the Attorney 
General, William Burroughs, the Master in Equity, and 
Sir Egerton Leigh were lawyers of large practice and 
great ability. If, as has been said, the "giants of the 
law " in the other colonies were nearly all Loyalists,^ it 
was not so in South Carolina. It is true that Charles 
Pinckney and John Rutledge were opposed to a separa- 
tion from the mother country; that their desire and strug- 
gle was for the overthrow of "the wicked ministry" of 
Lord North, and then a reconciliation with the King. It 

1 Lecky's Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, 136. 

2 Am. Loyalist (Sabine), 52. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 481 

is true, too, that Charles Pinckney took protection when 
the British obtained jjossession of South Carolina, and 
that John Rutledge proposed a neutrality for South Caro- 
lina. But however much they may have been opposed 
to the independence of the colonies, as distinguished from 
the maintenance of their rights and liberties, it is safe to 
say that without them and the younger members of the 
bar there would have been no Revolution in South 
Carolina, notwithstanding all the efforts of Christopher 
Gadsden. 1 

^ List of Attorneys Court of Common Pleas i775, and dates of Com- 
mission.'^ James Simpson, Esq., Attorney General, October 30, 1765 
William Burrows, August 29, 1748; James Parsons, May 11, 1750 
Charles Pinckney, July 22, 1752 ; Robert Williams, Jr., March 26, 1753 
Hon. Sir Egerton Leigh, Bar't, November 1, 1753 ; John Troup, August 6 
1754 ; John Remington, August 10, 1756 ; James Simons, January 7, 1760 
John Rutledge, Jr., January 2, 1761 ; Joshua, Ward, January 5, 1761 
Benjamin Guerard, January 9, 1761 ; Thomas Bee, January 27, 1761 
William Mazyck, November 4, 1761 ; Thomas Grimball, June 11, 1765 
William Mason, October 30, 1765 ; John Mathevps, September 22 
1766; John Colcock, February 12, 1767 ; Charles Motte, May 28, 1767 
Hugh Rutledge, January 20, 1768 ; John Bremar, May 10, 1768 ; John 
Scott, Jr., April 4, 1769 ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, January 19, 1770 
Thomas Heyward, Jr., January 22, 1771 ; William Roper, April 2, 1771 
Thomas Phepoe, June 5, 1771 ; Alexander Harvey, August 24, 1771 ; Henry 
Pendleton, November 1, 1771 ; John Dart, November 28, 1771 ; Alexander 
Moultrie, March 18, 1772 ; James Johnston, May 20, 1772 ; Edward Rut- 
ledge, January 28, 1773 ; Robert Ladson, February 26, 1773 ; Jacob Read, 
March 23, 1773 ; William Print, December 18, 1773 ; Charles Lining, 
May 12, 1774 ; Richard Howley, August 12, 1774. 

This list is taken from an Almanac for 1775 in possession of the late Daniel Eavenel, 
Esq. The dates are of their commissions to practise at the South Carolina bar. The dates 
of their admission to the bar in England will be found at ante. 

VOL. II 2 I 



CHAPTER XXV 

We have seen that under the Proprietary government 
the subject of education had received considerable atten- 
tion ; that prior even to 1710 the people of South Carolina 
had conceived and attempted the establishment of a free 
school, and that several legacies had been left for the 
purpose; tliat in 1711, with the aid of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, they had established a school 
which they so called under the care of the Rev. William 
Guy, A.M., assistant to the Rector of St. Philip's; that 
in 1712 the Assembly had passed " an act for the encour- 
agement of Learning,'''' which, within the year, however, had 
given place to a more elaborate system enacted under the 
title of '"''An Act for Founding and Erecting a Free ScJiool 
in Charlestoion for the use of the Inhabitants of the Province 
of South Carolina,''^ under which act John Douglass was 
the first master. The provisions of this act we have fully 
set out in the History of South Carolina under the Pro- 
prietary Grovernment.^ 

Upon the overthrow of the Proprietary and the estab- 
lishment of the Royal government the eccentric but liberal 
Sir Francis Nicholson, who in advance of his coming had 
contributed to the Provincial Library in 1712, brought 
out with him as Governor, instructions in regard to scliools, 
requiring that all schoolmasters from England should be 
licensed by the Bishop of London, all others by himself. 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 510, 512; Education 
in Sn. Ca. prior to and during the Revolution (McCrady) ; Coll. Hist. 
iSoc. of iSo. Ca., vol. IV, 7-lU. A tombstone still standing in St. Philip's 

482 



"UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 483 

He was, says Ramsay, a friend of learning, liberally con- 
tributed to its support, and pressed upon the colonists the 
usefulness and necessity of provincial establishments for 
its advancement. Two years after his arrival (1722) 
another act was passed by the General Assembly. The 
original of this act was not to be found when the Statutes 
at Large were compiled, but the text is given in Trott's 
Laws. By this act the Justices of County and Precinct 
courts were authorized to purchase lands, erect a free school 
in each county and precinct, and to assess the expense 
upon the lands and slaves within these respective juris- 
dictions. They were to appoint masters who should be 
"well skilled in the Latin tongue," and be allowed £25 
proclamation money per annum. Ten poor children were 
to be taught free of expense in each school if sent by the 
justices.^ 

The acts of Assembly we have mentioned were based 
upon the fact that many pious persons had previously be- 
queathed legacies for the establishment of free schools. 
As an instance of the legacies referred to in the recital of 
the acts of 1712, there is on record the will of one Dove 

churchyard, Charleston, attests that this school was actually established 
and maintained at least until 1729. The inscription upon it is as follows : — 

The Revd Mr. John Lambert 

Late Master, Principal, and Teacher of Grammar 

And Other Sciences Taught in the 

Free School 

At Charlestown for y^ Province of South Carolina 

And Afternoon Lecturer of this Parish 

of Saint Philips Charlestown 

Departed this Life (suddenly) on y« 4 August, 1729 

Blessed is this servant whom His Lord when 

He cometh shall find so doing. 

1 Trott's Laws of So. Ca., 808; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 96. See also 
Governor Alston's Beport to So. Ca. Legislature on the Free Schools, 1847. 



484 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Williams, on the 5th of May, 1711, by which he gave the 
sum of XlOO toward the building, furnishing, and main- 
taining the free school in Charlestown. Such bequests 
continued and increased to a much greater extent, show- 
ing how general was the interest in the subject, and how 
desirous and earnest were the people in diffusing educa- 
tion in the province generall3\ In 1721 Richard Berresford 
died, leaving a will whereby he devised one-third of the 
yearly profits of his estate for the support of one or more 
schoolmasters, who should teach writing, accounts, mathe- 
matics, and other liberal learning, and the other two-thirds 
for the support, maintenance, and education of the poor of 
the parish of St. Thomas. The vestry received from his 
estate in pursuance of this devise £6500 for promoting 
these pious and charitable purposes. ^ This fund. Dr. 
Ramsay says, was still in existence when he wrote (1808), 
and had long been known by the name of the " Berresford 
Bounty. "2 Indeed, it was preserved until destroyed, or 
nearly so, during the late war between the States. Mr. 
Berresford's example was soon followed by Mr. Richard 
Harris, who left in 1732 to the same vestry .£500, to be 
put out at interest until it rose to £1000, the intei'est on 
which should then be applied to the education and main- 
tenance of the poor children of the parish.^ Mr. James 
Child, of St. John's Parish, laid out a town on the west- 
ern branch of Cooper River, which was called Childsberry, 
and afterwards Strawberry, and left several legacies to pro- 
mote its settlement. He gave one square for a "college or 
university," £600 currency and a lot for a free school and 
house for the master. The inhabitants subscribed a further 
sum of £2200, and to these was added £200 given by 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist. , 285-293. 

2 Ramsay's Hht. of So. Ca., vol. II, 356. 
8 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 287. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 485 

Francis Williams. To cany out the purpose of these lega- 
cies the Assembly passed an act in 1733 for "erecting a 
free school at Childsberry." No person was eligible to 
be a trustee unless he subscribed XlOO, or was entitled to 
vote unless he subscribed £50.^ In 1728 the Rev. Richard 
Ludlam, A.M., died, leaving to the Society for the Propa- 
gation of the Gospel, which had sent him out as a mis- 
sionary, all his estate, real and personal, in trust for the 
maintenance of a school for the instruction of the poor of 
the parish of St. James, Goose Creek. In 1742 the Society 
wrote to the vestry that X592 7s. 6d. sterling was at 
interest at ten per cent per annum, and that there were 
still some lands unsold. The vestry did not, however, 
think that sum sufficient for the endowment of a school, 
and so did nothing until 1744, when they raised by sub- 
scription an additional sum of <£2275. In 1765 the Rev. 
Mr. Harrison, in transmitting to the Society the accounts 
of the Ludlam legacy, informs the Society that the parish- 
ioners had signed a subscription of £200 sterling toward 
the building of a schoolhouse if the Society would agree 
to certain conditions in regard to the management of the 
school. These conditions were accepted by the Society, 
who sent out a power of attorney to carry them into 
effect. In the same year Mr. Peter Taylor gave by his 
will £100 sterling, to be put out on good security until the 
school should be erected on the land puchased, and then 
the interest on it was to be applied to the education of 
poor children. In 1778 the Ludlam fund amounted to 
£15,272, in currency about £2000 sterling.2 In 1728 

1 Palcho's Ch. Hist., 266, 267 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 357. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 253, 260, 262. 

Dr. Dalcho in his Ch. Hist, tells us that the vestry, having considered 
the bequest of Mr. Ludlam as insufficient for the endowment of a school, 
had placed the money at interest until additional arrangements could be 



486 



HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



Mr. John Whitmarsh bequeathed XIOOO to the vestry of 
St. Paul's Parish, X500 to be Laid out in books of piety 
and devotion to be distributed to the poor, and £500 to 
be employed toward the education of the poor children of 
the parish. 1 The interest of £200 bequeathed by Francis 
Williams was also appropriated as a fund for teaching 

made to promote the object of the Testator, and upon their suggestion the 
following subscription was made : — 

" Whereas nothing is more likely to promote the practice of Chris- 
tianity and virtue than the early and pious education of Youth, we whose 
names are underwritten do hereby agree and oblige ourselves our execu- 
tors and administrators to pay yearly for three years successively, viz. 
on or before June 18, 1745, 1746, and 1747 to the Rev. Mr. Millechamp or 
the church wardens for the time being, the several and respective sums 
of money over against our names respectively subscribed, for the setting 
up of a school in the parish of St. James, Goose Creek, on the land for that 
purpose purchased, for instructing Children in the knowledge and practice 
of the Christian Religion and for teaching them such other things as are 
suitable to their capacity." 



Sa. Middleton £100 


Jane Morris 


£20 


John Channing ; 


£100 


William Middleton 


100 


Joseph Norman 


20 


C. Faucheraud 


100 


John Morton 


60 


Richard Tookerman 


I 5 


Robert Hume 


100 


Zack Villepontoux 


50 


Benjamin Mazyck 


15 


John Parker 


70 


Peter Taylor 


25 


Paul Mazck 


50 


W. Withers 


50 


Thomas Middleton 


50 


Robert Brown 


15 


Benj. Smith 


50 


Richard Singleton 


20 


William Wood 


8 


John Fibbin 


30 


William Allen 


25 


Robert Adams 


5 


John Mackenzie 


100 


Martha Izard 


20 


James Bagby 


10 


John Moultrie, Jr. 


100 


Cornelius Dupre 


5 


Joseph Hasfort 


15 


W. Blake 


100 


Alexander Dingle 


5 


James Marion 


5 


Benj. Coachman 


100 


Stephen Bull 


5 


Peter Porcher 


15 


Thomas Smith 


50 


G. Dupont 


7 


James Singleton 


10 


Henry Smith 


50 


Henry Izard 


60 


Isaac Porcher 


5 


Sedgewicke Lewis 


25 


James Kinloch 


40 


Benjamin Singleton 


10 


James Lynch 


30 


Gideon Faucheraud 


10 


Rachel Porcher 


5 


James Coachman 


40 


Mrs. Filiz. Izard 


30 


Thomas Singleton 


10 


John Deas 


100 


Maurice Keating 


10 


To these were subse- 


Rebecca Singleton 


25 


Mary Izard 


20 


quently added : — 




Peter Tamplet 


50 


Susanna Lansac 


10 


Peter Taylor 


100 


Joseph Dobbins 


25 



1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 257. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVEHNMENT 487 

poor scholars. 1 In 1736 Elias Horry devised a tract of 
land containing 750 acres to be sold, and the proceeds of 
the sale to be appropriated to the creation and perpetual 
endowment of a charity school in Prince George's Parish. ^ 

In 172-1 several gentlemen of St. George's, Dorchester, 
addressed the Society for the Propagation of the Gosj)el, 
asking their assistance to establish a free school at Dor- 
chester, and an act of the Assembly was passed for the 
purpose; but no school appears to liave been opened under 
it. In 1734, however, a free school was erected in Dor- 
chester. Alexander Skene, Thomas Waring, Joseph Bhike, 
Arthur Middleton, Ralph Izard, Benjamin Waring, Fran- 
cis Vernon, William and John Williams, were appointed 
trustees for taking care of its interest.^ 

The Fellowship Society, incorporated in 1769, one of 
the very first organizations in this country for the care 
and relief of the insane, appropriated one-half of its funds 
for that purpose, and the other moiety it bestowed on the 
gratuitous education of the children of the poor. The St. 
Andrew's Society likewise appropriated a portion of tlieir 
funds for similar purposes.* 

The Winyaw Indigo Society originated in a convivial 
club formed about the year 1740, which met in George- 
town once a month to talk over the latest news from London 
and the growth and prosperity of the indigo plant. From 
the initiation fees and annual contributions, which were 
paid in indigo and not in money, a considerable surplus 
fund was accumulated about 1753. The question arose : 
To what good purpose should this fund be devoted ? Tradi- 
tion relates that at the close of a discussion upon the sub- 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 257. 
■■^ Wills, Probate Office, Charleston. 

3 Dalcho's Ch. nist.,iU7 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. ITT, 378 ; Ramsay's 
Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 257. * Ram.say's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 363. 



488 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ject the President called upon the members to fill their 
glasses, as he wished to close the debate by a definite 
proposition, which, if it met their approbation, each mem- 
ber would signify it by emptying his glass. He said: 
" There may be intellectual food which the present state 
of society is not fit to partake of; to lay such before it 
would be as absurd as to give a quadrant to an Indian ; 
but knowledge is indeed as free as air. It has been wisely 
ordained that light should have no color, water no taste, 
and air no odor; so, indeed, knowledge should be equally 
pure and without admixture of creed or cant. I move 
therefore that the surplus funds in the treasury be devoted 
to the establishment of an independent charity school for 
the poor." The meeting rose to its feet. The glasses 
were each turned down without staining the tablecloth, 
and the school of the Winyaw Indigo Society was estab- 
lished. This school for more than one hundred years was 
the school for all the country between Charlestown and 
the North Carolina line. In its infancy it sujDplied the 
place of primary school, high school, grammar school, and 
college. " The rich and poor alike drank of this fountain of 
knowledge, and the farmer, the planter, the mechanic, the 
artisan, the general of armies, lawyers, doctors, priests, 
senators, and Governors of States have each looked back 
to the Winyaw Indigo Society as the grand source of their 
success or their distinction. To many of them it was the 
only source of their education. Here they began, here 
they ended, that disciplinary course which was the only 
preparation for the stern conflicts of life." Some years 
after the school had been in operation the trustees allowed 
the principal to receive fifteen pay scholars, for whose 
teaching he was paid $600, in addition to his regular 
salary of $1000 ; and if as many as fifteen more applied 
for admission, an assistant was employed at a salary of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 489 

$600. The institution thus became an important grammar 
and classical school on account of the efficiency of its 
teachers, and was patronized by the people of a large area 
of country.^ 

We find mentioned in the Gazette two schools in the 
neighborhood of Dorchester, one at Wasmassaw in 1731, 
and another at Ashley Ferry in 1751. 

Ramsay tells us that education was also fostered in 
South Carolina by several societies as a part of a general 
plan of charity. About the year 1736 several of the French 
Protestant congregation, having among them an individual 
who was in low circumstances and had opened a small 
tavern in order to maintain his family, agreed to meet at 
his house whenever they had any business to transact, and 
to spend an evening or two there every week. From this 
they were called the French Club. After a short time 
they further agreed to contribute, fifteen pence at every 
meeting toward raising a fund for the relief of any 
of the members who might stand in need of support, and 
from that circumstance the society derived the name of 
the Two-bit Club. Persons who had some knowledge of 
French became members, that they might improve them- 
selves in that language, no other being allowed to be spoken 
in the society. The society then established a school to 
the support of Avhich it devoted a part of its growing 
income, and paid the salary of a schoolmaster and school- 
mistress for the education of children of both sexes. 
From the beginning of the school until the time when 
Ramsay wrote in 1808 several hundred pupils had received 
the benefit of a plain education from its bounty. Pupils 
were received in succession. None under eight were ad- 

1 Rules of the Winyaw Indigo Society, Charleston, 1870. See this 
anecdote also related in the Hist, of Hir/her Education in So. Ca. (Colyer 
Meriwether, A.B.), U. S. Bureau of Education, 1889. 



490 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mitted, and none were retained over fourteen — girls not 
beyond twelve ; as fast as any of the pupils were dismissed, 
their places were supplied by the admission of others. 
The number of the pupils when Ramsay wrote was seventy- 
two. The funds then amounted to $137,000. The society 
was incorporated in 1751, by the name of the South Caro- 
lina Society. It was tlie first society incorporated, which 
gave the idea it was the first formed, which was, however, 
a mistake.^ In 1744 a school was established by a society 
at Jacksonboro, in which the " learned languages, mathe- 
matics, and writing were taught."^ 

The interest which the colonists in South Carolina took 
in educational matters clearly appears from a perusal of 
the Gazettes from 1733 to 1774, now on file in the Charles- 
ton Library.^ During this time there are more than four 
hundred and twelve advertisements relating to schools and 
schoolmasters ; and from these it appears that during the 
forty years there were nearly two hundred persons engaged 
in teaching in the province as tutors, schoolmasters, 
or schoolmistresses.* There were day schools, evening 
schools, and boarding schools; schools for boys and 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 362. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette. 

3 The following is a copy of the first advertisement we have found, 
May 12, 1733: — 

At the house of Mrs. Delaweare on Broad Street is taught these sciences. 
Arithmetic Surveying Astronomy 

Algebra Dialling Gauging 

Geometry Navigation Fortification 

Trigonometry 
The STEREOGRAPHIC and ORTHOGRAPHIC Projection of this 
Sphere. The use of the Globe and the Italian method of Bookkeeping by 

John Miller. 
* The author has a collection of these advertisements which support 
the assertion of the text. See Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. 
CMcCrady), 702. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 491 

schools for girls. A knowledge of English, Latin, and 
Greek could be obtained in the colony at any time after 
1712. French and music were tauglit constantly after 
1733. In instrumental music lessons were given upon 
the harpsichord, spinet, violin, violoncello, guitar, and 
flute. Advertisements for teaching Italian appear in 
1764, Spanish in 1767, and Hebrew in 1769; and "a 
young German of undeniable character " gives notice in 
1770 to "the nobility, gentry, and public that he can teach 
grammatically French, High and Low Dutch, Spanish, 
Portuguese, Latin." There were schools for fencing for 
the boys, and for needlework and embroidery for the girls. 
The teachers were almost all from England, many of them 
clergymen and Masters of Art. There were many female 
teachers for the girls. Several of these came from London. 
Elizabeth Duneau from England, "who has brought up 
many Ladies of rank and distinction," and has "kept one of 
the genteelest Boarding-schools about London," proposes 
in 1770 to open a boarding-school for young ladies, in 
which she will teach "grammatically the French and Eng- 
lish Languages, geography, history, and many instruct- 
ing amusements to improve the mind," besides all kinds 
of fashionable needlework, and will provide good teachers 
in drawing, music, dancing, writing, and arithmetic. 
Limners advertise to teach drawing as early as 1736, and 
dancing was constantly taught from 1734. In this year a 
dancing-school is opened in which the master, Mr. Henry 
Holt, lately arrived in the province, advertises that he has 
been taught by the most celebrated master in England and 
danced a considerable time at the Play House. In 1760 
Nicholas Valois gives notice that he continues to teach 
dancing and that he has received from London "40 of the 
newest country dances, jiggs, rigadoons, etc., by the best 
masters in London, which he proposes to teach." The next 



492 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

year he advertises a ball which he will give to his scholars, 
and will open the ball by dancing a minuet with one of 
them. There were two other famous dancing-schools, one 
of Andrew Rutledge,^ and the other of Thomas Pike, each 
of which gave balls to their scholars. Ramsay tells us 
that great attention was paid to music, and that many 
arrived at distinguished eminence in its science. The 
advertisements in the Gazettes fully sustain this state- 
ment. In 1739 a person lately arrived proposes to teach 
" the art of Psalmody according to the exact Rule of the 
gamut in all the various measures, both of the old and 
new version. " Similar advertisements continue to appear. 
The organists of St. Philip's Church appear to have added 
to their salaries by this means. 

In 1752 the vestry of St. Philip's Church send to 
London propositions for the employment of an organist in 
the place of one just dead, in which they hold out as 
inducements to a competent person : (1) that the voluntary 
subscriptions of the inhabitants for his services as organist 
will amount to no less than ,£50 sterling per annum; 

(2) that the benefit of teaching the harpsichord or spinet 
will amount at least to 100 if not 150 guineas per annum; 

(3) and that the benefit of concerts which on his obliging 
behavior to the gentlemen and ladies of the place may 
amount to 300 or 400 guineas per annum more.^ 

In addition to the schools there were lectures upon 
educational subjects. In 1739 Mr. Anderson lectures on 
Natural Philosophy. October 31, 1748, Samuel Domjen 
announces in the Gazette that, having in his travels in 
Europe studied and made wonderful experiments in elec- 
tricity, he proposes to show the surprising effects thereof 

1 This Andrew Rutledge was not a member of the well-known family 
of that name. 

2 Vestry Book St. Phihys Church, 1732-55, 219. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 493 

at Mr. Blythe's tavern in Broad Street during the hours 
from three to five in the afternoon of Wednesday and 
Friday, and when desired will wait on the ladies and gen- 
tlemen at their houses to show the experiments. " Each 
person admitted to see them to pay 2s., who also may be 
electrified if they please." In 1752 Mr. Evans gave two 
courses of lectures on Philosophy. He lectured every day, 
Sundays excepted. In 1754 Robert Skedday, A.B., gives 
a course of lectures on Natural Philosophy, viz. Astronomy, 
Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Optics. In 1765 Mr. Wil- 
liam Johnson advertises to give a course of lectures on 
"that instructive and entertaining branch of natural 
philosophy called Electricity." The course was to consist 
of two lectures, m which all the properties of that wonder- 
ful element as far as the latest discoveries have made us 
acquainted therewith, and the principal laws by which it 
acts, were to be demonstrated in a number of curious ex- 
periments, many of which were entirely new. Among 
many other particulars Mr. Johnson proposed to show that 
the electric fire commonly produced by friction of glass and 
other electrical substances is not created by that friction, 
but is a real element or fluid body diffused through all 
places in or near the earth ; and that our bodies contain 
enough of it at all times to set a house on fire. In his 
second lecture this fire was to be shown to be real light- 
ning, together with many curious experiments representing 
the various phenomena of thunder-storms. Mr. Johnson 
was thus entertaining and instructing the people of 
Charlestown with Franklin's new discoveries. And with 
an eye to business he advertises that those who desire to 
have their habitations guarded from the fatal violence of 
this most awful power of nature, with which this colony 
had been often dreadfully visited, might learn from his 
lectures and experiments more of the nature and pro- 



494 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

pensities of lightning than had been known in the world 
until within a few years ; and at the same time would have 
an opportunity of being fully convinced that the method 
proposed for security, if put in practice witli proper pre- 
cautions, would be attended with success ; and that they 
would understand, that instead of there being any just 
objection thereto, on the ground of its being a presumption 
in the face of the Almighty, they would have the utmost 
reason to bless God for a discovery so important and emi- 
nently useful. Mr. Johnson also undertook in these lec- 
tures to explain all the principal properties of that other 
useful branch of natural philosophy called Magnetism. 

The colonists of South Carolina might thus well chal- 
lenge comparison with those of any other province in 
America, and for that matter with the people at home in 
old England, for their efforts in behalf of the general and 
common education of the people. In no province, we 
venture to affirm, was more provision made by the wealthy 
for the education of the poor. There was, however, no 
similar system to that of the common schools which was 
growing up at the time in New England. The physical 
conditions of the province and of the colonists prevented 
it. The population was not equally scattered throughout 
the country, allowing the settlements of neighborhoods 
such as the New England townships. The low country 
was settled in large plantations, which were mostly un- 
healthy for the white man in the summer, thus requiring 
the planters to reside in Charlestowii or in some resort, as 
Georgetown and Beaufort, during that season. This neces- 
sitated provision to be made for private education on the 
plantations in the winter or the sending of the children 
to boarding-schools in Charlestown or elsewhere. The 
Gazettes of this time contain numerous advertisements for 
teachers in private families, and by persons willing to 



UNDEK THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 495 

become such tutors. Witli the accumulating wealth of 
the province it became the fashion after 1750, indeed to a 
considerable extent even before, to send the children of 
the opulent to England for their whole education. Many 
of the young men who came into public life just before 
the Revolution had spent the whole of their youth in 
England, or settled first at Eton or some other school, and 
then at Oxford or Cambridge. Thus it was that Chief 
Justice Charles Pincknej', when retired from the Bench 
and sent as the agent of South Carolina to London, took 
with him his two young sons, Charles Cotesworth and 
Thomas, and William Henry Drayton, and left them at 
school there. Besides these, Arthur Middleton, Thomas 
Hey ward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr. (three of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence), Christopher Gadsden, 
John Rutledge, Hugh Rutledge, Henry Laurens, John 
Laurens, Gabriel Manigault, Peter Manigault, and Wil- 
liam Wragg were sent to England for their education. 
Before and just after the Revolution, says Hugh S. Legare 
in a note to his Essay on Classical Learning, many, 
perhaps it would be more accurate to say most, of the 
youth of South Carolina of opulent families were educated 
in English schools and universities. There can be no 
doubt, he adds, that their attainments in polite literature 
we]'e very far superior to those of their contemporaries at 
the North, and the standard of scholarship in Charlestown 
was consequently much higher than in any other city on 
the Continent. 1 So too in his Retrospect of the Eighteenth 
Century^ by Dr. Samuel Miller of Princeton, in 1708, the 
belief is expressed that the learned languages, especially 
the Greek, were less studied in the Eastern than in the 
Southern and Middle states. The reason he assigns is 
that, owing to the superior wealth of the individuals in 

1 Legare's Writings, 7. 



496 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

the latter States, more of their sons were educated in 
Europe, and brought home with them a more accurate 
knowledge of the classics.^ 

Dr. Ramsay calls attention to the fact that the natives 
of Carolina who were educated in Great Britain were not 
biassed in favor of that country, but that most of them 
joined heartily in the Revolution, and from their superior 
knowledge were eminently useful as civil and military 
officers in directing the efforts of their countrymen in 
defence of their rights. This, he observes, is the more 
remarkable, as the reverse took place in the other prov- 
inces. 

During the discussion of the non-importation agreement 
in 1769 appears an essay in the South Carolina Crazette of 
November 9, in which the writer, "Carolinacus," suggests 
that a great economy can be promoted by home education. 
He calls attention to the large sums of money annually 
remitted to England to maintain the children there, which 
in effect is so much money lost to the province, and urges 
that the example of the northern provinces in educating 
their youths at home be followed in this. Such a plan, 
he says, would engage men of real learning to come amongst 
them. Lieutenant Governor Bull was too loyal a Governor 
to encourage the non-importation agreement; but he was 
a man of learning himself, — the first native American to 
take a degree in medicine abroad, — and upon much higher 
grounds was in favor of establishing a college in South 
Carolina. On the 30th of January, 1770, he sent in to 
the Assembly a special message upon the subject. He 
had upon former occasions, he said, recommended to them 
such matters as concerned the encouragement of trade and 
the wealth of the province. He had now to propose for 
their consideration a matter of greater importance, as it 

1 Howe's Hist. Prenh. Ch., vol. II, 21. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 497 

would transmit their wealth with additional advantage to 
their latest posterity. He meant the establishing in the 
province of seminaries of liberal education, whereby the 
youth — the future hope and support of the country — 
would be rendered more capable of serving themselves 
and the community of which they were members. The 
expense, and particularly the anxiety of parents, on 
account of the danger to the morals and lives of their chil- 
dren when far removed from parental oversight, deterred 
many from bestowing the inestimable advantages upon 
their olfspring which were then not to be obtained but by 
sending them abroad. As appeared by a memorial of the 
Vice Presidents and commissioners of free schools, a short 
time before, the masters of the free schools coming out 
from England, being clergymen, were constantly removed 
from the schools to benefices in the church, and this fre- 
quent change was an impediment to their progress. To 
meet this. Lieutenant Governor Bull in this message urged 
that though the provisions for the masters of the free 
schools were more liberal than could have been expected 
in the infant and weak state of the province when made, 
that it was now indispensable to put the free schools upon 
such a footing as would induce masters not only to under- 
take but continue their charge. The present flourishing 
state of the province could well afford the expense of 
suitable salaries and buildings for the purpose. But, the 
Governor went on to observe, grammar schools alone were 
not sufficient, as they lay only the foundation of the edu- 
cation of those who are to be employed in the learned 
professions, or who by their fortunes will be placed in the 
foremost rank of public servants, and to be not only the 
defence, but ornament, of their country. Such an educa- 
tion could not be implanted but by the instruction of 
learned professors in the various branches of the liberal 

VOL. II — 2 k 



498 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

arts and sciences, and is most successfully conveyed by 
students residing in colleges and conforming to wholesome 
statutes for their good government. It would, he ac- 
knowledged, be the work of time to build and endow such 
a seminary, but the benefits which the province would re- 
ceive would overbalance all considerations of that nature. 
In conclusion, the Lieutenant Governor called the atten- 
tion of the Assembly to the unhapp}^ condition of the back 
settlers, who were destitute of instruction, even in the 
lowest and most necessary parts of education, and recom- 
mended the establishment of schools at the Waxhaws, 
Camden, Broad River, Ninety-six, New Bordeaux, and 
the Congarees. In pursuance of this recommendation of 
Governor Bull a bill was drawn " for founding, erecting, 
and endowing public schools and a college for the educa- 
tion of the youth of this province," a considerable portion 
of which was said to be in the handwriting of John Rut- 
ledge. After making full provision for public schools, 
the bill provided for founding and endowing a college in 
the province ; for the appointment of commissioners and 
a Board of Trustees, of which the Governor and the 
Speaker of the Commons' House of Assembly were to be 
ex officio members, to be called "the Trustees of the College 
of South Carolina." There were to be a President, who 
should be Professor of Divinity, Moral Philosophy, and 
of the Greek and Hebrew languages, at a salary of £350 
sterling per annum; a Professor of the Civil and Common 
Law and of the Municipal Laws of the province, with a 
salary of <£200; a Professor of Physic, Anatomy, Botany, 
and Chemistry, X200; a Professor of Mathematics and of 
Natural and Experimental Philosophy, .£200; a Professor 
of History, Chronology, and Modern Languages, ,£200. 
The President was, of course, to be of the religion of the 
Church of England. To John Rutledge has usually been 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 499 

attributed the credit of having made the suggestion of this 
college, from the fact that most of the bill was in his 
handwriting; but the message of Lieutenant Governor 
Bull clearly indicates that he was the author of this 
attempt to provide a plan of higher education in the 
colony, and no doubt he had John Rutledge's hearty 
cooperation in the scheme. But the time was not pro- 
pitious for the introduction of any such wise measure. 
The people were all aflame about the non-importation 
agreement, and could think of nothing but their meet- 
ings and doings under the Liberty Tree. William 
Henry Drayton, as we shall see, had just left the prov- 
ince in disgust at the measures he was soon to return 
to espouse. William Wragg had retired in despair; 
Christopher Gadsden was pressing on in the road which 
could end only in revolution; and John Rutledge him- 
self was conniving at the misappropriation of the pub- 
lic funds for the benefit of Wilkes. He might assist 
Governor Bull by drafting a bill to carry out recom- 
mendations which his own judgment no doubt clearly 
approved, but he could not divert the attention of the 
people under the Liberty Tree from the enforcement of 
the " agreement " to consider so theoretical a matter as 
that of education. 

But while Governor Bull could not induce the General 
Assembly to forego the disputes with the Royal govern- 
ment sufficiently to attend to this matter of the promotion 
of colleges for higher education, the northern colonies saw 
the opportunity of raising funds for the support of such 
institutions in America, and availed themselves of it. 
The aazette of the 15th of February (1770) reports, " We 
have now here no less than two solicitors for benefactions 
to colleges in northern colonies, viz. : the Rev. Hezekiah 
Smith, who collects for one intended to be established in 



500 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Rhode Island government, the President whereof always 
is to be a Baptist, and the majority of the Trustees of the 
same profession; the other, the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, who 
has met with great success in gathering for that estab- 
lished in Prince Town in New Jersey, and we are told if 
this continues we may expect annual visits for the sup- 
port of those foundations. Surely, if we can afford this, 
we ought not to delay procuring an establishment here for 
the benefit of our posterity." Two years later, March 26, 
1772, the Crazette announces: "The Rev. Dr. William 
Smith, we are assured, has collected not less than .£1000 
sterling in the short time he has been here by donations 
for the use of the college : an evident proof of how liber- 
ally and readily the inhabitants of tliis province would 
contribute to promote so necessary and desirable an es- 
tablishment among themselves." In the minutes of the 
Board of Trustees of the College of Philadelphia (now 
University of Pennsylvania) there is an order of the date of 
April 15, 1772, "that the names of the several gentlemen 
who so kindly contributed toward the college in collec- 
tions made for the same in South Carolina by Dr. Smith 
be inserted in this boolv^as a perpetual testimony of the 
obligation which this seminary is under to them. The 
list is headed by Lieutenant Governor Bull himself with 
a contribution of £150 South Carolina currency; Henry 
Middleton, £350; Thomas Smith, £350; Gabriel Mani- 
gault, £700; Miles Brewton, £275; Charles Pinckney, 
£147; Christopher Gadsden, £140; Thomas Ferguson, 
£350; and so on, almost every man in the colony of any 
prominence contributing and making up a sum equivalent 
to £1061 10s. Id. sterling. The people of South Carolina 
thus contributed to the establishment of three of the great 
institutions of learning in the country, — Princeton, Brown 
University, and the University of Pennsylvania. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 501 

Governor Bull, as we have seen, called the attention of 
the General Assembly to the want of schools in the upper 
part of the province. The year before, i.e. in 1768, a 
society had been formed by the inhabitants of the Ninety- 
six District for the purpose of endowing and supporting a 
school there, the society was incorporated in the session 
of the General Assembly to which Governor Bull sent his 
message, "-and at the same session Thomas Bell, William 
and Patrick Calhoun, and Andrew Williamson petitioned 
the Assembly in behalf of themselves and of "other 
inhabitants of the back parts of the province " among 
other things, as we shall see, for ministers of the gospel 
and schoolmasters. But the want of public schools in this 
section of the State was supplied, in a great measure, 
by the Presbyterian clergymen who came down with the 
Scotch-Irish immigration. Churches and schoolhouses 
were built together by the ministers of that church, which 
from the earliest times has been foremost in the cause of 
education in this country. Of the zeal of the women of 
these people we have already had occasion to quote the 
eloquent description of their historian. These Presbyte- 
rian clergymen came from Ireland, — some from Scotland, 
— and were usually men of education, some of the highest 
education. They read and wrote Latin fluently, and appear 
to have been required to defend a thesis, and to explain 
the Greek Testament upon joining the presbytery. At 
least such was expected of Archibald Simpson when he 
began his ministry as a probationer. Some were excellent 
arithmeticians, and all were good penmen. The " Master," 
as the teacher was called, discharged many duties usually 
performed by lawyers and surveyors. In the absence of 
lawyers, in that section, he drew all the wills and titles to 
land, and made all the difficult calculations. No man in 
the settlement was more honorable or honored than the 



502 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

"Master." The title signified more than "Reverend" or 
"Doctor" does now. 

It is a curious and interesting fact in the history of 
South Carolina that the very first instance in which the 
names of the English churchmen and the Huguenots on 
the coast, and of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of the 
upper country, are commingled, is in the establishment of 
a school. The Mount Zion Society was established in the 
city of Charlestown January 9th and incorporated February 
12, 1777, the year after the battle of Fort Moultrie, for the 
purpose of founding, endowing, and supporting a public 
school in the District of Camden, for the education and 
instruction of youth. The preamble of the constitution 
is prefaced by Isaiah Ix. 1 and Ix. 3: "Arise, shine, for 
thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
thee. To appoint unto them that mount in Zion, to give 
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they 
may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of 
the Lord, that he might be glorified." The very language 
is jubilant with hope and courage, and the quotation may 
have suggested the name of the society. Its members 
were from all parts of the State ; but its meetings, which 
were to be weekly, quarterly, and annual, for the con- 
venience of the most of its members, were to be held in 
Charlestown. Its first President, John Winn, and its 
wardens, William Strother and Robert Ellison, were resi- 
dents of what is now Fairfield County, then a part of 
Camden District. The school was located at the town 
which was named Winnsboro, in honor of John Winn. 
Its membership the first year, 1777, was fifty-eight in 
number. Among these were Colonel Thomas Taylor and 
Thomas Woodward, and two from the low country, Edward 
McCrady, one of the first members, and Andrew Rutledgo. 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 503 

In 1778 ninety-six were added, and in 1799 eighty-seven. 
In the second year of its existence, we find among the 
names of its members four sons of Anthony Hampton, — 
Henry, Edward, Richard, and Wade, — and the brother 
of Anthony, John Hampton, William and Eli Kershaw, 
and Andrew Pickens, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. 
Just before the fall of Charlestown, in 1780, many of the 
low country men joined the society, probably with a view 
to the maintenance of a school in a part of the province to 
which they might be driven by the enemy on the coast. 
New members were received on the 8th of May, 1780, just 
four days before the surrender of the town. But Corn- 
wallis's invasion closed all the schools. Indeed, in this 
same year he established his headquarters at Winnsboro. 
We have no record of the society for the two following 
years; but early in 1783, Charlestown having been re- 
covered, it met there; John Huger, President, appointed 
John Winn and six other directors in Winnsboro and its 
vicinit}', and Charles Pinckney and five other directors in 
Charlestown. Upon its reorganization it was reported 
" that the temporary school had been broken up by the 
enemy, but the buildings were safe in the custody of 
Colonel Richard Winn." Colonel Winn and Colonel 
John Vanderhorst in 1784 gave lands to the school, and it 
was placed under the charge of the Rev. Thomas Harris 
McCaule, who proposed to enlarge it into a college upon 
the plan of the college in New Jersey (Princeton), where 
he had been educated. In 1785 the Mount Zion College, 
the college of Cambridge at Ninety-six, and the Charles- 
ton College were incorporated in the same act.^ 

About the same time as the Mount Zion Society, there 
was organized another, that of St. David's, in the Pee Dee 
section. The subscription paper is dated the 13th of 

1 Statutes of So. C'a., vol. IV, G74. 



504 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

December, 1777. Its preamble urges the importance of 
endowing and establishing public schools to cultivate the 
youth in the principles of religion and every social virtue, 
to enable them to fill with dignity and usefulness the 
important departments of State; and asks who that is a 
lover of his country can fail to deplore the great want of 
this necessary qualification in our youth, especially in the 
interior parts of it, at this early period of our flourishing 
and rising State? "In the future, when we shall be at 
liberty to make our own laws without the control of an 
arbitrary despot, what heart would not glow with pleasure 
to see a senate filled with learned, wise, and able men, 
for the want of whom the most flourishing republics have 
become the tools of arbitrary despots ? And whereas there 
is a society established in the parish of St. David, by the 
name of St. David's Society, purposely for founding a 
public school in said parish for educating youths in the 
Latin and Greek languages, mathematics, and other useful 
branches of learning, by those who are not of ability with- 
out assistance to carry so useful and necessary an effort 
into effect," to contribute to so laudable and benevolent 
an undertaking the subscribers contribute the sums men- 
tioned. The society was incorporated on the 28th of 
March, 1778. ^ Another, the " Catholic Society," was about 
the same time incorporated for the purpose of founding, 
endowing, and supporting a public school in the District 
of Camden, eastward of the Wateree River. 

" Indeed, if the number of newspapers printed in any 
community may be taken as a gauge of the education of the 
people, the condition of the Southern states as compared 
with the Eastern and Middle was most deplorable," is the 
reckless assertion of a distinguished historian; and in 
support of this charge of ignorance he states that in 1775 

1 Gregg's Hist, of the " Old Cheraios,'' 280-284. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 505 

there were in the entire country thirty-seven newspapers 
in circulation. Of these, fourteen were in New England, 
four in New York, nine in Pennsylvania. In Virginia 
and North Carolina there were two each ; in Georgia, one ; 
in South Carolina, three. ^ It is fortunate, indeed, for 
the people of South Carolina that appeal has been made 
to this standard as a legitimate test of education ; for 
when we come to apply this measure, we find that if it 
is to be the rule, the colony in South Carolina was the 
most highly educated in America. The value of the test 
must of course depend upon the number of the people 
and the number of newspapers in each colon3^ As then 
in the whole country at the commencement of the Revo- 
lution there were but 37 newspapers, and as the nearest 
estimate that can now be had of the white people of the 
whole country at the time is 2,389,300, we would have 
one newspaper published to every 64,575. The historian 
admits that the colony of South Carolina at the time had 
three newspapers. We have no estimate of the population 
of South Carolina in 1775; but in 1765 it was but 40,000, 
and from 1766 to 1774 there were three newspapers. 
Supposing that the white population increased to the 
extent of 50 per cent during the ten years from 1766 to 
1776, we would have the number of whites in South 
Carolina but 60,000, and this was the estimate of Henry 
Laurens writing to the French Minister in 1779. The 

1 McMaster's Hist, of the People of the U. S., vol. I, 27. The news- 
papers in South Carolina, as preserved in the Charleston Library to-day, 
were : So. Ca. Gazette, 1732 to 1774, 9 vols., folio ; So. Ca. American Gen- 
eral Gazette, 1766 to 1775, 2 vols., folio; So. Ca. Gazette and Country 
Journal, 1766 to 1774 (see Catalogue Charleston Library). Before these 
there had been So. Ca. Gazette, January to September, 1731, 2 vols., So. 
Ca. Weekly Gazette, 1732, 1733, 2 vols., folio. Ibid. See also Thomas's 
Hist, of Printing ; Hudson's Hist, of Journalism ; King's Neiospaper 
Press of Charleston. 



50(1 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

historical committee of the Charleston Library Society, 
however, reports in 1835, apparently upon the authority 
of "Wells's Register," that in 1773 the whites amounted 
to 65,000. For a considerable part of this time therefore 
there was one newspaper to not more than 15,000 people, 
and for the rest of the time prior to the Revolution one to 
not more than 21,666. But we have just seen that in the 
whole country the average population necessary to support 
a paper was 64,575. If we carry on this comparison 
with the New England states, which are held up as the 
standard to Avhich South Carolina failed to attain, we 
find that of the fourteen newspapers published in New 
England, seven were published in Massachusetts, one in 
New Hampshire, two in Rhode Island, and four in 
Connecticut. The population of Massachusetts in 1775 
was estimated at 352, 000, ^ and as there were seven news- 
papers, we have but one for every 52,285 inhabitants. 
In New Hampshire there was but one newspaper for 
82,200 people.^ In Connecticut the population was 
197,365,^ and it had four newspapers, or one to every 
49,340. We can find no estimate of the population of 
Rhode Island at this time. 

A very nearly complete file of Gazettes and newspapers 
from 1732 to the present day is preserved in the Charleston 
Library, forming a rich mine of historical information; 
indeed, it constitutes a daily journal of events of the time 
for province, city, and State for one hundred and sixty-six 
years. A colonial Gazette had always a column or two of 
ncAvs from Europe, — the doings of the court in London 
and proceedings in Parliament. It had a page or two of 
advertisements of all kinds, shipping lists, etc. There 

1 E. S. Prone in Am. Encyclopedia. 

2 Belknap's Hist, of New Hampshire, 234. 

3 Am. Encyclopedia. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 607 

were always short local paragraphs in which are presented 
most interesting items of personal and local history, some- 
times invaluable in fixing definitely and decisively dis- 
puted dates. There were notices of births, deaths, and 
marriages. In announcing a marriage it was the custom 
to make some complimentary remark upon the bride. 
" She was a young lady of great beauty, and blessed with 
the most valuable accomplishments." "A lady of cele- 
brated beauty, and endowed with every qualification that 
can render the nuptial state a happy one." Sometimes 
fortune is mentioned in pounds sterling. Then there 
were moral and social essays after the model and style 
of those in the Spectator and Rambler^ all in the most 
approved Johnsonian periods. All political subjects were 
discussed in the Gazettes. We have seen the discussions 
concerning the nature of the Council: whether it was an 
Upper House of Parliament, or merely an advisory cabinet. 
During the excitement over the non-importation agitation 
the letters on the subject were often very bitter. The 
celebrated discussion between Christopher Gadsden and 
William Henry Drayton we shall soon see carried on in 
this way, the old patriot not hesitating to inflict seven 
and eight columns of his wrath at a time upon his youthful 
but accomplished adversary, in a style rambling and con- 
fused, but always hitting his mark. Commissary Garden 
takes a hand in the heated discussion upon the subject of 
the smallpox. The question of inoculation is discussed, 
whether it is not tempting the wrath of God in thus 
claiming to anticipate the dread disease. There were 
but few editorials. But Timothy, in the South Carolina 
Gazette, was always warning against the importation of 
negro slaves because of the danger from their increasing 
numbers in proportion to the whites. Wells, of the 
American General Gazette, was early accused of lukewarm- 



508 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ness to the patriot cause, an accusation which was con- 
firmed by his going over to the British wlien tliey took 
tlie city, and his paper becoming the Royal G-azette. 

The establishment of libraries, the circulation of books, 
encouraged by legislative acts and private donations, are 
certainly evidences that education was not neglected in 
the province. " The idea of a free public library could 
hardly find acceptance," it has been observed, "until the 
idea of free public education had become familiar to men's 
mind, and the libraries existing at the time of the Revo- 
lution were necessarily representative of the existing state 
of public opinion on the subject of culture."^ The colo- 
nists of South Carolina had become familiar with the ideas 
alike of free public education and a free public library 
before the overthrow of the Proprietary government. 
Their efforts in regard to free education were no doubt 
limited, but in each parish there were pupils who were 
taught free at the public expense. There can be little 
doubt that the first library in America to be supported in 
any degree at the public expense was that at Charlestown 
in 1698. The belief expressed by the author that this 
library was the first public library in America ^ has been 
criticised as misleading.^ But the facts are sufficient to 
sustain the belief. The library at Henrico, Virginia, in 
1623, which is said to a moral certainty to have been the 
first,^ was not in any sense a public library. It was the 
gift of a private library to a projected college, just as 
the library of Harvard was begun by a devise by the Rev. 
John Harvard of his library to the Wilderness Seminary. 

1 Public Libraries a Hundred Years Ago (H. E. Scudder), U. S. Bureau 
of Education, 1876, chap. I. 

2 So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 353. 

^ Am. Hist. Review (Whitney), vol. Ill, No. 3, 550; Pub. of the 
Southern Hist. Assn., vol. II, No. 2, 136. 
* Am. Hist. lievieio (Steiner), vol. II, 59. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 509 

Both these were libraries of educational institutions, not 
generally public. Of the libraries which the Rev. Dr. 
Bray attempted to establish, that at Charlestown was the 
first, if not the only one, to receive support from the 
public treasury. Sir Francis Nicholson, it is true, while 
Governor of Maryland in 1697, recommended to the 
Assembly of that province the support of the library 
Dr. Bray was trying to found there ; but besides thanking 
him, the Assembly did nothing. ^ But in South Carolina 
the Assembly not only thanked Dr. Bray, but contributed 
substantially to the purchase of books for a public library. 
The Commons, on the 8th of October, 1698 ^ — 

" Ordered that Capt. Job Howe and Mr. Ralph Izard be a Com- 
mittee to join with whom the Upper House shall appoint, and that they 
do write Letters both to the Lord Bishop of London and Dr. Thomas 
Bray and give them the thanks of the House for their pious care and 
pains in providing and sending a minister of the Church of England 
and laying a foundation of a good and Public Library, and that Mr. 
Speaker sign the above letter of thanks on behalf of this House." 

On the 19th of November (1698) they further ordered : — 

" That Mr. Jonathan Amory, Receiver General, do lay out in 
dressed skins to the value of seventy pounds current money, and the 
same ship for London in some vessel bound thither on account and 
risque of Mr. Robert Colvill, Bookseller in London, for the payment 
of fifty-three pounds that is due the said Robert Colvill, being part 
payment of a public Library bought of him, and that said skins be 
consigned to William Thornbough, Esq., and that he be desired to 
lay out the overplus (if any) in such books as he shall think proper 
for the Public Library, that are not already mentioned in the cata- 
logue of the said Library, and that this order be sent to the Upper 
House for their concurrence and that the Speaker sign the same." 

Again, subsequently, Tjut without date, the Commons 
ordered : — 

1 Am. Hist. Beview (Steiuer), vol. II, 59. ^ Commons Journal. 



510 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

" That Ralph Izard, Esq., Mr. Robert Stevens, & Cap't Job Howe 
be a committee to write a letter to the Hon. the Lords Prop'rs . . . 
with also the thanks of the House for the generous present of so con- 
siderable a part of our public Library, and that Mr. Speaker sign the 
said letter," etc. 

This library, it will be observed, though founded by 
Dr. Bray, was supported by the Lords Proprietors and 
the Assembly in South Carolina, and was governed by 
commissioners appointed by the legislature. It was, as we 
have seen, in operation in 1712, under the acts of 1700 
and 1712. These acts, it is admitted, are the earliest 
library laws in America as far as known. ^ 

But care must be taken not to confuse this public library 
with that of the Charlestown Library Society, begun in 
1743, which exists to this day, and which has furnished 
the materials for much of this History. We do not know 
how long the public library was maintained after the act 
of 1712, which was passed for its preservation. We can 
find no further record nor mention of it. 

But in the year 1743 some young gentlemen, by con- 
tributing among themselves, imported a few books and 
associated themselves for the purpose of raising a small 
fund to collect new pamphlets published in Great Britain. ^ 
It will be recollected that political writings were then 
almost entirel}^ confined to pamphlets. It was in pam- 
phlets that Addison and Steele fought for the Whigs and 
Swift for the Tories. Dr. Johnson's political tracts and 
some of Edmund Burke's most valued writings are con- 

1 Pub. of the Southern Hist. Asso., vol. II, No. 2, 136. 

2 Tlie names of the original members, seventeen in number, were John 
Sinclair, John Cooper, Peter Timothy, James Gundlay, William Burrows, 
Morton Brailsford, Charles Stevenson, Jolin Neufville, Thomas Sachivereli, 
Robert Brisbane, Samuel Brailsford, Saul Douxsamt, Thomas Middleton, 
Alexander Bavon, Alexander MtCaulay, Patrick McKie, and William 
Logan. Ramsay's Ilist. of So. Ca., vol. II, 37, 48. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 611 

taiued in such papers. The troubles in America were the 
subject of pamphlets both in England and in this country. 
The last pamphlet from England was therefore eagerly 
read by all who were interested in the political world. 
These young men advanced and remitted to London XIO 
as a fund to purchase such pamphlets as had appeared in 
the current year, acting at first under a mere verbal agree- 
ment and without a name. From this small beginning 
they soon perceived the great advantages there might be 
if the scheme was enlarged and prosecuted with spirit. 
Finding themselves unequal to the plan, they invited 
others to associate with them, and were soon joined by 
other lovers of books and students of science. A public 
library was projected ; the idea met with great applause, 
and was countenanced by the best people of the place, who 
became members of the infant society. Its plan was ex- 
tended to the endowment of an academy, to encourage men 
of literature to reside among them and instruct the youths 
in the several branches of a liberal education. Before the 
end of the year — i.e. on the 28th of December, 1743 — 
rules for the organization of the society were ratified 
and signed, when the name of the Library Society was 
assumed. Arrangements were then at once made for 
the acquisition of books as well as of pamphlets. There 
was some delay in obtaining a charter, which required 
the Royal assent. Li the year 1754 application Avas 
made to the General Assembly for a charter of in- 
cor[)oration. The act was at once passed, but there 
was a long accidental delay in obtaining the Royal 
assent necessary. The instrument of confirmation was 
sent by a vessel which fell into the hands of the French 
on its passage from England, and was thus delayed 
for eighteen months. The delay a^opears to have been 
considered very prejudicial to the enterprise. Great 



612 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

store was set upon a charter as a means of enforcing its 
rules and preserving its books. 

The arrival of the charter at length gave new life to the 
society. His Excellency Governor Lyttleton became a 
member. Thomas Smith was the first president, and 
Daniel Crawford succeeded him in 1757. In 1758 Gov- 
ernor Lyttleton was made president, and from that time 
the Governor or the Lieutenant Governor was the presi- 
dent, with the exception of Governor Boone. Thus, 
Lieutenant Governor Bull was president from 1761 to 
1768, the colonists refusing to have anything to do with 
Governor Boone. Lord Charles Greville Montagu was 
president in 1768-69, and Lieutenant Governor Bull again 
to the Revolution. Daniel Crawford, Benjamin Smith, 
and Peter Manigault — the two latter Speakers of the 
Commons — were vice presidents. The society was thus 
closely connected with the government, but it followed 
the popular sentiment. Thus, we find Boone's personal 
unpopularity excluded him from the presidency; nor could 
Lord Charles Montagu be reelected after the troubles 
of non-importation began. The library was the centre of 
the intelligence, education, and culture of the people. 
The books and jDhilosophic instruments were bul-nt during 
the Revolution — in 1778. It then contained between six 
and seven thousand volumes. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

The years that elapsed between 1728 and 1763, it has 
been observed, were years of unprecedented prosperity. 
The increase of population was immense, and in the 
enjoyment of unexampled happiness the people became 
gay, polished, and devoted to hospitality. Among those 
who passed the meridian of life during that period, it was 
affectionately remembered by the appellation of the good 
old time. Society at that time, it was said, was precisely 
in that state which is most favorable to the enjoyment 
of life. The luxuries of the day were within the reach 
of a moderate fortune, and few could be said to be elevated 
above one common level. Hence social happiness was 
not disturbed by the workings of envy or the haughty 
demeanor of upstart pride. ^ The first and second Georges, 
says Ramsay, were nursing fathers to the province, and 
performed to it the full-orbed duty of Kings ; and their 
paternal care was returned with the most ardent love and 
affection of their subjects in Carolina. The advantages 
were reciprocal. The colonists enjoyed the protection of 
Great Britain, and in return she had a monopoly of their 
trade. The mother country received great benefits from 
this intercourse, and the colony under her protecting care 
became great and happy. The Carolinians were fond of 
British manners, even to excess.^ To such an extent was 
this carried that Drayton adds they were too much preju- 

1 Johnson's Life of Green, vol. I, 255. 

2 Ramsay's Eevohttion, vol. I, 7. 
VOL. II — 2 L 613 



514 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

diced in favor of British manners, customs, and culture 
to imagine that elsewhere than in England anything of 
advantage could be obtained. ^ They were not satislied, 
it is said, unless the very bricks of which their houses 
were built were brought from England.^ Though un- 

1 A view of So. Ca. (Drayton), 217. 

2 There is a very common tradition in South Carolina, not peculiar 
however to this State, that tlie bricks of wliicli some still standing colo- 
nial mansions were built were imported from England. These traditions 
have, we believe, been pretty well exploded in Virginia and Maryland. 
And, as somewhat of a test, the author of this work i-equested Mr. John 
H. Devereux, Architect, U. S. Superintendent of Public Buildings, to 
make for him a calculation, by measurement, of the bricks in the histori- 
cal residence of Miles Brewton, built probably about 1770, and now 
known as the Pringle mansion, situated in King Street, Charleston ; the 
headquarters both of the British and Federal armies during their respec- 
tive occupations of the city. He finds that there are in it 1,278,720 bricks, 
weighing 8 pounds each, which amounts to 4566 tons. There were no 
vessels at that time of over 500 tons trading to Charlestown ; so that it 
would have taken a fleet of 9 of the heaviest draught vessels then coming 
into our harbor to have brought these bricks from England ; or if brought 
in ballast, 100 tons to the vessel, 45 vessels. Mr. Josiah Quincy, in his 
Journal, states that this house was .said to have cost Mr. Brewton £8000 
sterling, probably about $50,000 of our present money ; but this would 
scarcely have allowed the employment of so many vessels in the trans- 
portation of bricks alone when cargoes from England at that time were so 
valuable. An explanation of the tradition probably is that there were 
two patterns or moulds used for making bricks, one of which was called 
" English brick," and the other " Dutch brick," — the English was large 
and heavy, the Dutch brick was very small, — a sample of the latter is 
still to be seen in the house on Church Street, mentioned by the author in 
a note to his work on the Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov., p. 703, as one 
of the oldest in the city ; the bricks in the Pringle mansion are probably 
samples of the former. The fact that a house was said to have been 
built of "English brick" has been construed by tradition to mean that 
it was built of bricks imported from England. As we have seen, how- 
ever, some bricks were certainly brought from England, as well as from 
New England, after the great fire of 1740, for the prices of Englisli 
bricks and New England bricks were then, among other things, fixed by 
statute. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 515 

suited to the climate, the models of their houses were 
after those of the houses in London and the English 
country seats. Their furniture and carriage horses, chaises 
or coaches, must all be imported. In vain did the coach- 
makers in Charlestown advertise in the Gazette that they 
could build as good. The tailors and milliners brought 
out the fashions from London. In February, 1751, a 
peruke maker from St. James, London, advertises in the 
G-azette his arrival, and that he has taken a shop in Broad 
Street, where he intends to follow his business; has 
brought over with him a choice assortment of English 
hair and other material belonging to his business; he 
promises both ladies and gentlemen that their business 
will be done according to the best and newest fashions, 
that they shall be fitted to the greatest nicety, so that 
their wigs shall never shrink in the foretop parts or come 
down ; he promises the ladies that their " tetes " shall be 
made in such perfect imitation of their own hair that it 
will be difficult to discover any difference. 

Households were organized on the English model, except 
in so far as it was modified by the institution of slavery, 
which modification was chiefly in the number of servants. 
In every well-organized planter's household there were 
three high positions, the objects of ambition of all the 
negroes on the plantation. These were the butler, the 
coachman, and the patroon. The butler was chief of all 
about the mansion ; usually the oldest negro man-servant 
on the premises, his head was often white, the contrast of 
which Avith his dark skin was striking, and added much 
to the dignity which it was always his care and pride to 
maintain. His manner was founded upon that of the 
best of the society in which his master moved, and with 
all he possessed much greater ease than is usual in a 
white man occupying the same position. He became an 



516 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

authority upon matters of table etiquette, and was quick 
to detect the slightest breach of it. He considered it a 
part of his duty to advise and lecture the young people of 
the family upon the subject. He often had entire charge 
of the pantry and storeroom keys, and was usually faithful 
to his trust. He was somewhat of a judge, too, of the 
cellar ; but there are stories which indicate that it was 
scarcely safe to allow him free access to its contents. 
The coachman, to the boys of the family at least, was 
scarcely less a character than the butler. He had entire 
charge of the stable, and took the utmost pride in the 
horsemanship of his young masters, to whom he had given 
the first lessons in riding. The butler might be the 
greatest man at home; but he had never the glory of 
driving the family coach and four down the great "Path" 
to town and through its street. The oldest plantations 
Avere upon the rivers ; a water front, indeed, and a land- 
ing were essential to such an establishment, for it must 
have the periago for plantation purposes, and the trim 
sloop and large cypress canoes for the master's use. So 
beside the master of the horse — the coachman — there 
was a naval officer, too, to each planter's household, and 
he was the patroon — a name no doubt brought from the 
West Indies. The patroon had charge of the boats, and 
the winding of his horn upon the river told the family of 
his master's coming. He, too, trained the boat hands to 
the oar and taught them the plaintive, humorous, happy 
catches which they sang as they bent to the stroke, and 
for which the mother of the family often strained her ears 
to catch the first sound which told of the safe return of 
her dear ones. Each of these head servants had his under- 
lincrs, over whom he lorded it in imitation of his master. 
The house was full, too, of maids and seamstresses of all 
kinds, who kept the mistress busy, if only to find employ- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 617 

ment for so many hands. Outside of the household the 
"driver" was the great man. Under his master's rule, 
he was absolute. He was too great a man to work him- 
self, and if his master was anybody — that is, if the plan- 
tation was of a respectable size, with a decent number of 
hands — he must have a horse to ride, for how else could 
he oversee all his people ? The " driver " was the execu- 
tive officer. He received his orders from his master, and 
he carried them out. He did all the punishing. When 
punishment was necessary, he inflicted it under his mas- 
ter's orders. He was responsible for the administration 
of the plantation. A plantation was a community in itself. 
It had its necessary artisans. There must be carpenters, 
blacksmiths, coopers, tailors, and shoemakers, for there 
were no ready-made clothes and shoes in those days. Then 
there was a hospital for the sick, and a house for the chil- 
dren wliile the mothers were at work. All these required 
thorough organization and complete system. There were 
no doubt many and great evils inseparable from the insti- 
tution of slavery, but these were reduced to a minimum 
on a Carolina plantation; generally the slaves were con- 
tented and happy, and shared in the prosperity which their 
labors on the new rice fields were bringing to their masters. 
The Carolinian, like a true Englishman, was devoted to 
field sports. He rode from his infancy. Attempts have 
been made to show that horses were natives of America, 
and plausible arguments have been adduced to establish 
the fact;^ but Bartram, the best authority, informs us 
that the horse was not originally found in the possession 
of Indians. 2 It is curious that horses are not mentioned 

1 Lo.fjan's Hint, of Upper So. Ca., 155 ; " Horses not Imported," 
pamphlet, F. S. Holmes, Charleston Library, 5th Series, vol. XV. 
- Bnrtram's Travels, 218. 
" With regard to the horses of America in different parts of the coun- 



518 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in the instructions to Governor Sayle, which otherwise 
give such minute instructions for the material he was to 
take out or to obtain for the settlement of the colony in 
1670, unless horses were intended to be included in his 
instructions as to cattle; these, he was instructed, the 
Proprietors would cause to be brought from Virginia. 
And though it is usually supposed that the horses of 
Carolina were obtained from the Spaniards, who had pro- 
duced a remarkable breed in Florida, there can be little 
doubt that Virginia was the source of supply to this 
province; indeed, so much did the colonists depend upon 
Virginia for their horses, instead of attending to rearing 
them themselves, that as early as 1700 the Assembly 
passed an act reciting that the great numbers brought 
from Virginia and other northern plantations were disad- 
vantageous and detrimental to the province, and imposing 
a heavy tax upon their introduction.^ Nevertheless Dr. 
Ramsay tells us that before 1754 a Spanish breed called 
the Chickesaws were the best horses for the draught or 
saddle. These horses, he sa3^s, in general, were hand- 
some, active, and hardy, but small, seldom exceeding 
thirteen hands and a half in height. These, when crossed 

try, we will merely say that they originated from various nations. 
Columbus on his second voyage, in 1493, brought over with him many 
horses from Spain ; but Cabaca de Vaca was the first person who im- 
ported horses into any part of the country now a part of the United States. 
He landed them in Florida in 1527. They were turned loose and soon 
increased wonderfully. In 1609 a stallion and six mares were imported 
into Virginia from England. In 1625 there were brought over a few 
horses from Holland to New Netherlands, now New York. The first 
horse brought into the State of Massachusetts was from England in 1029. 
In 1678 horses existed in great numbers in Louisiana, Illinois, and Texas ; 
wild herds, of Spanish extraction, were found roaming over our western 
prairies when the West was fiist explored." — Hist, of the Ttirfin So. Ca. 
(1857), 24, 25. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. 11, 164. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 619 

with English blooded horses, produced colts of great 
beauty, strength, and swiftness. After 1754 the stock of 
horses was still more improved by foreign importations.^ 
Great attention was paid to the breeding of these horses. 
They were trained to two gaits, — the canter and the walk, 
— and in these they were unsurpassed. The trot and pace 
were seldom used. The saddle horses were excellent 
hunters, and though but of medium size would seldom 
hesitate to take a six-rail fence at a leap. The boys and 
girls learned to ride upon tackies, which were often not 
more than ponies in size, but active, enduring, and easy 
gaited. The Low Country was not suited for fox hunting. 
It was too much cut up with marshy creeks and swamps 
to allow a fox chase. The great sport was deer hunting, 
which was carried on by clubs as a social diversion. The 
members met once or twice a month, by turns providing a 
dinner in a plain building erected for the purpose, and 
called the clubhouse. They met early in the day with 
their hounds, horses, and guns. The hounds, usually in 
charge of a negro, soon found the scent, and no sooner was 
it found than in full cry the chase was begun. The woods, 
says Dr. Ramsay, reechoed with sounds more exhilarating 
to the party than any musical instrument. From their 
knowledge of the countiy and the habits of the deer, the 
Imnters knew the precise course the deer would take, and 
in anticipation of that would take different stands, but 
all ahead of the game, so that the terror-stricken animal 
would sometimes run the gantlet of many guns ; or at 
others, when the number was small, having missed a shot, 
the hunter would gallop through the woods with a swift- 
ness exceeding that of the dogs, and reach another stand 
before the game approached it. The deer seldom ran its 
full course. He often fell before the first stand; he hardly 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 403. 



520 HISTORY OF SOUTFI CAROLINA 

ever escaped a second; sometimes he was killed by a shot 
from the hunter while at full speed. ^ There was one of 
these clubs in St. Andrew's Parish as early as 1761. ^ The 
clubhouse still stands on the church grounds. 

The Carolinians were fond of horse-racing. As early 
as February 1, 1734, we find in the Gazette a notice of a 
race for a saddle and bridle, valued at £20 as the prize, 
mile heats, four entries. The horses carried ten stone; 
the riders, it was stipulated, must be white. This race 
took place on a green on Charlestown Neck, immediately 
opposite a public-house, known in those days as the 
Bowling Green House. The course was staked out for 
the occasion. In the following year (1735) owners of fine 
horses were invited through the papers to enter them for 
a purse of XIOO. This year a course was laid out at the 
Quarter House, about six miles from Charlestown, to which 
the name was given of the York Course, after the course 
of York in England, which was then attaining celebrity 
as a race ground. From year to year, racing was con- 
tinued over the York Course, either in the month of Feb- 
ruary or beginning of March, the prize being generally a 
silver bowl or a silver waiter or a silver tankard about the 
value of XlOO currency (about X14 sterling), the riders 
never carrying less than ten stone weight. Silver in some 
form continued to be the prize; and the silver plate of 
many families in the colony was considerably increased by 
the prizes won on the race-course. Occasionally, however, 
other prizes were offered. On the 11th of March, 1743, 
a gold watch, valued at X140, was run for; and on the 
24th of February, 1744, a finely embroidered jacket, of 
the value of <£90. In this race, each rode his adversary's 
horse, and the one that came in last took the jacket. On 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 406. 

2 iSo. Ca. Gazette. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 521 

the second Thursday in February, 1747, a race was run 
at the Ponds Okl Fiekl, near Dorchester, for a very neat 
saddle and bridle, with blue housings, value £30, a pair 
of silver spoons, and some other things, — one mile, the 
best in three heats. Races at this place were continued 
for a few years. As we learn from a History of the Turf 
in South Carolina, published by the South Carolina Jockey 
Club, up to this time not many full-blooded horses had 
been imported into the province; but soon after some 
well-bred horses and mares were brought from England, 
and many planters raised their own liorses. In conse- 
quence of the inconvenient distance of the York Course 
from Charlestown, and with a view to still further encour- 
age and improve the herd of good horses, a new course was 
established, by subscription, in the year 1754, and laid out 
about a mile from the town. It was announced to the 
public as the New Market Course. Races took place on 
it for the first time on the 19th of February, 1760, under 
the proprietorship of Mr. Thomas Nightingale, — a York- 
shire man by birth, — the same we have mentioned in a 
previous chapter as establishing a cow pen, or ranche, 
near what is now Winsboro. This course was situated 
on the common on Charlestown Neck, commonly known as 
the Blake Tract; it occupied the whole of the unenclosed 
ground between the King Street road and the low ground 
of Cooper River, through which now runs Meeting Street 
road. Meeting Street road was not then laid out; the 
road known as the " Great Path " or " Broad Path " was 
that now known as King Street road. From 1760 an 
increased interest was manifested in the sports of the 
turf in South Carolina. Races were announced to take 
place in various sections of the Low Country. In 1768 
there were races at Jacksonborough ; in 1769 at Ferguson 
Ferry, and at Beaufort; and soon after they were in sue- 



522 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

cessful operation at Cliildsbeny, or Strawberry, St. John's 
Parish. The races at the last-named place were kept up 
by Mr. Daniel Ravenel and the Harlestons. The princi- 
pal breeders of race-horses appear to have been Thomas 
Nightingale, Daniel Ravenel, Edward and Nicholas 
Harleston, Francis Huger, and William Middleton. It 
is probable many will suppose, says the historian of the 
turf, that the contests which took place up to this time 
had been little better than what would be regarded in the 
present day as scrub races ; but this, says the author, was 
far from being the case, though many horses which ran 
were without pure pedigrees. The first race which pro- 
duced any very unusual excitement was a match, January 
31, 1769, between Mr. William Henry Drayton's horse, 
Adolphus, bred in Carolina, and Mr. Tbomas Nightin- 
gale's imported horse, Shadow, — four-mile heats over the 
New Market Course. The imported horse, which was one 
bred in England by Lord Northumberland, beat the Caro- 
lina colt easily; and, after winning the match, challenged, 
without acceptance, any horse in the province. Another 
famous horse just prior to the Revolution was Flimnap, 
imported by the firm of Mansell, Corbett & Co., of Charles- 
town. He beat all the horses in the country, among others 
another celebrated horse of Mr. Nightingale's, called 
"Carless." He was a horse of much celebrity, and held 
in high estimation in England before he was brought to 
Carolina. Josiah Quincy, in his Journal, enters, "March 
3 (1773), spent this day in viewing horses, riding over the 
town, and receiving complimentary visits. . . . March 
16 . . . am now going to the famous races. The races 
were well performed; but Flimnap beat Little David (who 
had won the last sixteen races) out and out. The last 
heat the former distanced the latter. The first four-mile 
heat was performed in eight minutes and seventeen sec- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 523 

onds, being four miles. Two thousand pounds were won 
and lost at this race, and Flimnap sold at public vendue 
the same day for X300 sterling. At the races I saw a 
fine collection of excellent, though very high-priced, 
horses, and was let a little into the 'singular art and mys- 
tery of the turf. ' " 

Among the Articles of Association adopted by the Conti- 
nental Congress, in 1774, the eighth pledged the sub- 
scribers to "discountenance and discourage every species 
of extravagance and dissipation, especiall?/ horse-racing and 
all kinds of gaming, cock-fighting, exhibitions of shows, 
plays, and other expensive diversions and entertainments." 
This was no sacrifice on the part of the Puritans of New 
England, where all theatrical performances were forbidden 
by law, and where there was no such thing as a race-course 
or a thoroughbred horse; but it was no little sacrifice in 
Virginia and South Carolina, where the theatre and the 
race-course were the constaut resorts of all the people. 
But, while John Rutledge was protesting against the in- 
justice of the prohibition of the exportation of rice, we do 
not find that he raised his voice to object to the suppres- 
sion of amusements. The people of South Carolina, how- 
ever, even while showing their willingness to fight for the 
cause of liberty, did not take kindly to these deprivations, 
and especially did they disregard and violate this prohibi- 
tion of racing. So the General Assembly took up the 
matter, and in an act reciting the pledge of the Associa- 
tion upon the subject, prescribed that if any person should 
violate the said Association from the passage of this ordi- 
nance by any manner of horse-racing, he should forfeit the 
sum of money he bet and the horse he ran. Whether this 
act was ever enforced we do not know ; but the progress of 
the war put a more effectual stop to the sport and dispersed 
the horses. 



524 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Wars and rumors of wars, says the historian of the 
turf, now began to have their effect upon the popular 
pastimes of the Carolinians. The independence of the 
country having been declared, no event of interest on 
the turf occurred for many years. Not only were all the 
horses thrown out of training, but, on the appearance of 
the British army in the Low Country, they were either 
used as chargers by those who had taken up arms in the 
defence of the country, or they were hid in the swamps 
adjoining the different plantations on which they were 
bred. But in this their owners were but partially success- 
ful. In Sir Henry Clinton's expedition to Carolina, his 
cavalry horses having been lost at sea, it was a matter of 
great consequence to find horses upon which to remount 
his men; and, through the carelessness of the post at 
Monck's Corner, Tarleton was enabled at one fell swoop 
to secure four hundred. The possession of some of the 
famous race-horses in the Low Country became the object 
of great prize to the contending forces, and many and 
most interesting incidents are brought down by tradition 
connected with the attempts of the British to capture 
them, and of the escapes of their masters, in some instances, 
by reason of their fieetness. Repeated efforts were made 
to get possession of Flimnap, then owned by Major Isaac 
C. Harleston ; but they were unsuccessful, the negro 
grooms remaining faithful to their charge until he could 
be removed into North Carolina, one of tliem having been 
actually hanged and left as dead by a detachment of British 
troops, because he would not betray his trust in regard to 
the place of concealment of the horse; but he was cut 
down and recovered.^ 

i Hist, of the Turf in So. Cn. (1857), 43, 44. 

Major Harleston was not at that time, however, the sole owner of this 
celebrated horse, as will appear by the following extract from the will of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 525 

But, as we have said, the malaria drove the planters to 
town every spring before the bloom of the highly scented 
magnolia had fairly opened; and there he remained with 
his family until the next hard frost, visiting his planta- 
tion from week to week, usually in his well-manned canoe, 
which the patroon brought for him. This collection of 
planters and their families during the summer months pro- 
duced a society of wealth and leisure for which there must 
be provided entertainment; but this was of a domestic 
character. Public balls, concerts, and races took place 
then, as now, in winter — the fashionable season. 

The people were as fond of indoor amusements as of 
field sports, and music was cultivated at a very early 

John Harleston, Jr., who died in 1783, just after the Revolution, and 
which is given also as illustrative of the manners of the times: "Also 
my moiety in the above mentioned stud horse, Flimnap, as also my wear- 
ing gold watch and the old family watch I give unto my cousin, Isaac 
Harleston, son of John Harleston, deceased, also it is my will and desire 
that my negro man slave, Andrew, immediately after my death have his 
liberty and that he ever afterward enjoy his freedom, whom 1 hereby set free 
and manumit in reward for his great attachment to my person and interest 
and his ready and faithful discharge of duty to me in every capacity, par- 
ticularly in the character of a groom ; and to prevent his becoming an incum- 
brance to society or a charge to the State, by age, sickness, or accident, I 
hereby order and direct that the said Andrew shall always be permitted to 
reside upon any one of my plantations he may chuse, and I liereby give 
unto the said Andrew the sum of ^flOO annually, current money of South 
Carolina, according to the real value in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and sevent3^-five, for and during the term of his natural 
life." — Will Book A, 188, Probate office, Charleston, S.C. 

Mr. John Huger also by his will gave his servant, Mingo, his freedom 
and the freedom of his wife as an handmaid, because of his faithful 
service in protecting his property of which he was left in charge, and 
this though Mingo had not been able to save a fine breeding mare from 
capture by the British. Mingo, after his master's death, remained for 
years upon the Hagan plantation, his master's residence, keeping his 
horse, drawing his rations, blankets, and provisions equally with the 
Other negroes to the last day of his life. //(';>■(. of the Turf in So. C'a., 45. 



526 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

period. The Gazette of the 17th of February, 1733, an- 
nounces that "at the Council Chamber on Monday, the 
26th instant, will be a Comsort of vocal and instrumental 
music. Tickets to be had at Mr. Cook's and Mr. San- 
reau's at 40s. N.B. None but English and Scotch songs." 
The next year a similar advertisement appears for a Con- 
sort on the 19th of February (1733), with the addition that 
it would begin at 6 o'clock. The Consort was repeated 
this year on the 18th of December, and in January and 
March following two more were given. These were adver- 
tised to be for the benefit of Mr. Slater, and tickets were 
to be had of Mr. Stephen Bedon and Mr. Roper in Broad 
Street. 1735 was a gay year, notwithstanding that the 
good Governor Robert Johnson died in it. There were 
not only concerts, but a new theatre was opened, and this 
leads us to observe that there was then a theatre in 
Charlestown even before 1735, as the theatre opened is 
spoken of as the New Theatre^ clearly implying that there 
had been one before. This was undoubtedly the first 
theatre in the American colonies, the next attempt being 
in 1749 in Philadelphia. ^ In the Crazette of February 21, 
1735, we find an advertisement. "At the New Theatre^ 
Queen Street, will be acted on Monday next A Tragedy 
called the Orphan^ or the unhappy marriage ; " and on 

1 In the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica (9th ed.), in an 
article upon the Drama, it is stated "that Judge Daly has discovered in 
Br(Hlfor(Vs Gazette of October, 1738, an advertisement of a merchant who 
announces that his store is 'next door to the Playhouse,' but his later 
and more minute researches lead him to believe that this Playhouse of 
173o was used principally for puppet shows and similar entertainments. 
But the performances given in 1750 by the Philadelphia Company are 
beyond all doubt, and for the first time we are on the solid ground of 
assured fact." But here we have the equally assured fact of a theatre 
in Charleston before 1735, and the performance of a Tragedy in February 
of that year. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 527 

the 28Mi is announced " By the Desire of the Troop and 
Foot Companies, At the New Theatre in Queen St., will 
be acted on Tuesday next a Comedy called the Recruiting 
Officer, with several entertainments, as will be expressed 
in the foot bills." For March the 12th, the Londo7i Mer- 
chant, or the history of George Baruivell, is advertised. 
By the end of 1735 society had advanced from the concert 
stage to that of a public ball. On the 22d of November 
we find in the Grazette the notice, " At the Court Room on 
Monday, 15th of December next, will be A Ball. To begin 
at 5 o'clock. No person admitted but by printed Ticket. 
Henry Holt, Master." In January, 1737, is advertised 
to be performed, " the Tragedy called Cato, written by the 
late Mr. Addison, with a Prologue by Mr. Pope. Tickets 
to be had at Mr. Charles Sheppeard's, Stage and Balcony 
Boxes 30s., Pitt 25s., gallery 5s. To begin exactly at 6 
o'clock." From this time on we find concerts, theatrical 
performances, and balls constantly occurring until May 
23, 1774, when the Gazette announces that the American 
Company/ of Comedians finished their campaign here on 
Friday last, having acted Fifty-eight plays, from the 22d 
of December last, a list of which it promised to insert in 
its next issue, and, accordingly, on the 30th it has quite 
a long review of the theatrical performances of this com- 
pany, which, it says, were warmly countenanced and sup- 
ported by the public, and the manager and his company 
excited to the most strenuous efforts to render their 
entertainments worthy of so respectable a patronage. If 
it is considered, says the Gazette, how late it was in the 
season before the house could be opened, the varietj^ of 
the scenery and decorations necessary to a regular theatre, 
the number of the plays represented, and that almost every 
piece required particular preparations, it must be confessed 
that the exertions of the American Company have been 



528 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

uncommon, and justly entitles them to the marks of public 
favor that have for many years stamped a merit on their 
performances. The Grazette announces that the comj^any 
had separated until the winter, when the New York Theatre 
would be opened, Mr. Hallam, the manager, having em- 
barked for England to engage some recruits for that service. 
The year after, the company proposed to perform at Phila- 
delphia, and in the November following (that is, in 1776) 
we may expect them here, says the Gazette, with a theatrical 
force hitherto unknown in America. It is needless to say 
this expectation was not fulfilled. When the time came 
for their anticipated return the country was in revolution, 
and the battle of Fort Moultrie had been fought. In the 
catalogue of pieces performed during this time we find all 
the standard plaj'S of the day. Of Shakespeare's there 
were produced "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," "Mer- 
chant of Venice," "Richard III.," "Tempest," "Henry 
IV.," "Othello," "King Lear," "Julius Caesar," "Mac- 
beth, " " King John. " Of others, " The Mourning Bride, " 
"She Stoops to Conquer," "Beggar Opera," "West 
Indian," " Fair Penitent," etc. 

On the 5tli of November, 1737, the Gazette announces 
that at the New Theatre on Queen Street on Thursday, the 
12th, being St. Cecilia's day, will be performed a concert 
of vocal and instrumental music. This was probably the 
origin of the St. Cecilia Society, which was not organized, 
however, until 1762. Josiah Quincy, on his visit in 1773, 
attended a concert given by this society, and in his Journal 
describes the concert house as a large, inelegant building, 
situated down a yard. At the entrance he was met by a 
constable with his staff. To this officer he offered his 
ticket, which was subscribed by Mr. David Deas, who 
had given it to him. He was directed by the officer to 
proceed, and was next met by a white waiter, who directed 



« 



UNDEE THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 529 

him to a third, to whom he delivered his ticket, — and 
was conducted in. The music, he says, was good; the 
bass viols and French horns were grand. He tells of one 
Abercrombie, a Frenchman just arrived, who played the 
first violin and a solo incomparably better than any one he 
had ever heard. So rich was the society that the violinist, 
who could not speak a word of English, had a salary from 
it of 500 guineas. Mr. Quincy gives a very interesting 
account of the entertainment. There were, he says, two 
hundred and fifty hidies present, and it was called no great 
number. In loftiness of the head-dresses, he says, these 
ladies stoop to the daughters of the North; in richness of 
dress surpass them ; in health and floridity of countenance 
vail to them. In taciturnity during the performances, 
greatly before our ladies ; in noise and flirtation after the 
music is over, pretty much on a par. If our ladies have 
any advantage, it is in white and red, vivacity and spirit. 
The gentlemen, many of them, dressed with richness and 
elegance uncommon with us. Many with swords on. 
Lord Charles Greville Montagu, the Governor, who was 
to sail the next day for London, was present to bid fare- 
well to the people, among whom, notwithstanding their 
political differences, he had many personal friends, to 
whom he was no doubt sincerely attached. Mr. Quincy 
was presented to his Excellency by Mr. Deas, and to 
Chief Justice Thomas Knox Gordon, and two of the As- 
sistant Judges recently arrived from England. 

In 1784 the St. Cecilia Society was incorporated in an 
act which recites that its members, by voluntary contribu- 
tions, had raised a considerable fund, which was out at 
interest on bonds, and had collected a number of musical 
instruments, books, and other property for the purpose of 
encouraging the liberal science of music. This Society 
has had a continuous existence until to-day. It has lost 

VOL. II — 2 M 



630 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

its musical characteristics, but has preserved that of a 
social organization of the highest standing. 

There were billiard tables in the colony as early as 1734. 
One is advertised for sale at Ashley Ferry in the Crazette 
of June 1st of that year. 

Charitable societies were almost coeval with the Royal 
government, and in almost every instance education was 
a part of their work. Both Hewatt and Ramsay mention 
the South Carolina Society, founded about 1737, as the 
oldest of this class ; but there were two others older. A 
number of gentlemen, in the year 1729, formed themselves 
into a society for the purpose of cultivating and maintain- 
ing a good understanding and acquaintance with one 
another, and, as most of the members were natives of 
Scotland, they named the society the St. Andrew'' s Club. 
They did not, however, limit its membership to the natives 
of Scotland, but declared that "any man of honor and 
integrity, of what nation, degree, or profession so ever, 
was admissible." On St. Andrew's day, 1730, Alexander 
Skene was elected their first president; and, as might 
have been expected in a society formed under the auspices 
of one so devoted to education as he appears to have been, 
a portion of the funds of the Society were appropriated to 
school purposes, and twenty children at a time were edu- 
cated at its expense. We find in the Gazette of the 28th 
of April, 1733, a notice that "on Monday last (i.e. 23d) 
was established the St. G-eorge's Society, in honor of the 
Patron of England, and John Bayly was chosen presi- 
dent; and at night they had an elegant supper at the 
house of Mr. Robert Raper." We have had occasion in 
the last chapter to give an account of the South Carolina 
and Winyaw Indigo Societies. The Fellowship Society 
was begun on the 4th of April, 17G2, — that day being a 
Sunday, — but the day of meeting was fixed for Wednes- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERKMENT 531 

days. It was no desecration of the da}^, however, that the 
Society was begun on a Sunday, for it truly had good works 
for its object. Its original purpose was that of founding 
an infirmary, or hospital, for the reception of lunatics and 
other distempered and sick persons in the province. It 
was incorporated in 1769, under the name of the Felloiv- 
ship Society^ and had then collected, by small contributions 
from time to time, a considerable sum of money. There 
had been but one attempt before this to establish a lunatic 
asylum in the country, and that was a provision of a sepa- 
rate ward for the insane in the Pennsylvania Hospital in 
1752.^ This Society also had its school. The German 
Friendly Society was organized on the 15th of January, 
1766, at the house of Michael Kalteisen, in Charlestown. 
Its membership was restricted exclusively to Germans, 
or those born of German parents. This Society also in 
time opened and maintained a school. Later (1777) the 
Mount Zion Society was established for the purpose of 
providing a school in the Camden district, at what is now 
Winnsboro; and in the same year the St. David'' s Society., 
for a similar purpose, in the Old Cheraws ; and the next 
year the Catholic Society., for the same purpose, on the 
Wateree. All these societies had large funds, almost all 
of which were preserved and increased until destroyed in 
the late war between the States. There was also a Welsh 
Club; but we know nothing more of it than a notice in the 
Grazette of rather an uproarious meeting on St. David's 
day, 1735, upon which occasion some members fired off 
guns after dark, contrary to the law. 

Societies were formed also for other than social, chari- 
table, and educational purposes. On the 13th of Decem- 
ber, 1735, a notice appears that gentlemen who are willing 
to enter a society for the mutual insurance of their houses 

1 VV. \V. Godding, M.U., Avi. Journal of Insanity, October, 1884. 



532 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

against fire are desired to meet at the house of William 
Pinckney ^ on the Bay, on Tuesday next at 5 o'clock in the 
afternoon to enter into articles to carry out the design. 
On January 3, 1736, Jacob Motte, James Crokat, and 
Henry Peronneau advertise that the Rules are engrossed 
and ready for signature. They state that the proposed 
value of those who had subscribed amounted to about 
X 100, 000. The Society was organized on the 3d of Feb- 
ruary, under the name of the Friendly Society ; John Fen- 
wicke, Samuel Wragg, and Charles Pinckney were chosen 
Directors; John Crokat and Henry Peronneau, Merchants 
(si(?) ; Gabriel Manigault, Treasurer; Gereit Van Velesen 
and John Laurens, Fire Masters. This was the first fire 
insurance company in America; the next being the 
Philadelpliia ContributorsJiip for the Lisurance of Houses 
against Losses by Fire, at the head of the Directors of 
which stood Benjamin Franklin, and which was founded 
in 1752.2 Qf ^Ijq Charlestown Library, and its influence 
as a centre of culture, we have already spoken. 

There were fashionable taverns, too, where entertain- 
ments were had, and which the gentlemen of leisure fre- 
quented. Mr. Dillon's, at the corner of Church and Broad 
streets, — "the corner" as it was afterward called, — and 
Mr. Poinsett's, on the Bay, were the chief of these. It 
was to these houses that the processions from the Liberty 
Tree, in honor of Wilkes and of the Massachusetts anti- 
rescinders, marched, and there the men went in to refresh 
themselves ; and there they met to discuss the affairs of 
the day. 

There was a court circle in the province. The popular 
Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and his son, the good 
Governor Robert, their Excellencies Charles Craven, James 

1 A brotlier of the Chief Justice Charles Pinckney. 

2 Supplement to Encyclopedia BrUau)dca, title " Insurance." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 533 

Oleii, William Henry Lyttleton, and, at first, Lord Charles 
(jreville Montagu, were the heads of society as well as of 
the government. Thomas Boone was not, for he was a 
man of dissolute character, and his earl}^ quarrel with the 
Assembly ostracized him socially as well as politically. 
Around the Governors were the families who, for the hun- 
dred years of the colonial history, had been deputies of 
the Lords Proprietors and members of the King's Council. 
First of all were the Bulls, — not only councillors, but 
Lieutenant Governors, — father and son governing the 
colony for many years. Then the Colletons, Middletons, 
Blakes, Broughtons, Smiths, Wraggs, Draytons, Kinlochs, 
Izards, Clelands, Fenwickes, Warings, Elliots, andPinck- 
neys. The Speakers of the House of Commons were also 
persons of great social consequence. Charles Pinckney, 
Andrew Rutledge, Benjamin Smith, Peter Manigault, 
and Rawlins Lowndes successively filled the chair in the 
House, and took each his part in the great duties of his 
position. Associated with them were the government 
officials, who came with appointments from England, — at 
least this was the case until these offices, as well as that 
of councillor, became prostituted to partisan purposes, — 
the gratification of ministerial favorites and the rewards 
of doubtful services which could not be recognized at 
home. The Chief Justice and the Assistant Judges, the 
Attorney General and the Provost Marshal, or his deputy, 
and the Collector of Custom were persons alike of social, 
as of official, importance. We have seen how Chief Jus- 
tice Pinckney was put aside to make way for Peter Leigh, 
who had to be provided for by the corrupt administration 
of Pelham; but Peter Leigh was a gentleman as well 
as a good lawyer, and his son Egerton, afterward made a 
baronet, and himself occupied a high social position in the 
colony, though doubtless the circumstances of their advent 



534 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

had much to do with preparing the way for the reception 
of revolutionary sentiments. Hector Berenger de Beau- 
fain, a Frenchman by birth, who came out in 1733 as col- 
lector of his Majesty's customs, a man of education and 
accomplishments, endeared himself to the people by the 
just administration of his public office and the example of 
his private virtues. He was a most important man in the 
colony for thirty-three years, a part of the time in the 
Council, and exercised a great social influence. He was 
honored after his death with a tablet in the old St. Philip's 
Church. The officers of the British army and navy were 
great social favorites. We have seen how Colonel Mont- 
gomery's troops, who came to the temporary assistance of 
the colonists in the first Cherokee war, were welcomed by 
the people in 1760. Colonel Grant, who commanded the 
next detachment, and the expedition of 1761, was inclined 
to put on a good many airs, and to treat the provincial 
officers with little respect ; but this conduct was promptly 
resented by Colonel Thomas Middleton in a way that led 
to the duel we have mentioned, in which the position of the 
provincial officer was fully established. Colonel Probarth 
Howath, a provincial officer who was long in command of 
Fort Johnson, appears to have been quite a favorite. The 
names of two naval officers are preserved in the streets of 
Charleston ; Lord George Anson, the famous circumnavi- 
gator, between the years 1724 to 1735, was stationed chiefly 
on the Carolina coast, and was much given to card-playing. 
The tradition is, that the part of the city through which An- 
son Street now runs was purchased by him out of his gains 
at the card-table — a modification of this is that he won the 
whole tract in one game. The tract was called Ansonboro, 
and, as we have said, was the first suburb of the town.^ 

1 This story has taken form in the Encyclopmdia Britannica, that "a 
town and county, named Ansonborough, commemorate his residence there." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 535 

Sir Peter Warren, another British admiral, was stationed 
at Charlestown as a young man and purchased hinds in 
the vicinit}^ of what is now Warren Street. 

It is the common belief that at convivial parties among 
gentlemen in the last century there was a great deal of 
heavy drinking, and there is no doubt much truth in it ; 
but there was little drunkenness. An examination of an 
old book containing copies of business letters dating from 
1763 to 1773 shows many pipes of wine and casks of 
Madeira in bottles received for parties ordering, all coming 
by ship from England. Madeira became known and fash- 
ionable in England, owing to the strong recommendation 
of officers who had served in the West Indies and America; 
and Charlestown was the place from which its reputation 
chiefly came. A glimpse at the convivial habits of this 
time is given in a sketch of a wine party still preserved 
in a family in Charlestown from 1760. The party con- 
sists of eight persons, each one named and his likeness 
given as far as possible, although the artistic merits are 
not conspicuous. Of the number five are officers of Fort 
Johnson, including the colonel commanding, three are 
civilians, including the host — himself one of the most 
prominent men of the times. They are seated around a 
square table, upon which are a punch-bowl, several bottles, 
and two decanters; one of the glasses is broken and l3^ing 
on the table. The half-burned candles show the time to be 
late at night — a fact which is corroborated by the black 
servant boy leaning his head against the wall overcome 
with sleep. There is much merriment, each one saying 
something, or, rather, all talking at the same time, as par- 
ticipants in convivial parties usually do. But the scene 
is an orderly one withal, and indicates that excessive 
drinking was by no means the fashion. 

Diaries were frequently kept. One, by the wife of a 



536 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

distinguished merchant, contains a record of births, deaths, 
and marriages of friends of the writer. Guests arriving — 
occasionally breakfasting and frequently dining, supping, 
or taking tea, all of whom are named — are numerous. 
Governors Glen and Lyttleton, with other guests, dine 
with the family ; Governor Boone does not appear in the 
diary. Attendance at private and Assembly balls and at 
the play, with lists of plays performed. Attendance on 
Whitefield's preaching. Sitting for a portrait by Theus. 
Arrival of troops. Marching of troops. Officer's ball. 
Rejoicing for captures of Cape Breton and Quebec. No 
dinner to the Governors after 1770, when the trouble with 
the mother country had become serious, though Lord 
William Campbell was connected with the family. 

But we are still more fortunate in having a most admir- 
able and entertaining picture of social and domestic life in 
South Carolina during the period from 1737 to the Revolu- 
tion in a work recently published. ^ This most valuable 
book contains a number of hitherto unpublished letters 
written by Eliza Lucas, afterward Eliza Pinckney, the wife 
of Chief Justice Charles Pinckney, depicting, in great 
detail and with an indescribable charm, the manners, cus- 
toms, and modes of life of her day — presenting, uncon- 
sciously, a work of decided historical as well as of great 
personal interest. The letters have the great additional 
fortune to be most admirably edited by a descendant of 
Eliza Pinckney, who unites in herself probably more his- 
toric strains than any other person — save her own chil- 
dren — in South Carolina ; and whose literary work shows 
her worthy of her illustrious ancestry. 

A marked difference between the people of South Caro- 
lina and the other colonies was in their intercourse with 

1 Eliza Pinckney, Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times (Har- 
riott Horry Ravenel), Scribner Series. 



d 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 537 

England. As late as 1795, says Professor McMaster, a 
gentleman who had been abroad was pointed out in the 
streets, even of the large cities, with the remark, " There 
goes a man who has been to EurojDe."^ There were few 
gentlemen in South Carolina who had not been to Europe. 
We have seen how their sons were constantly sent abroad, 
either to Scotland or England, for their education. Their 
parents often went to take them there ; not unfrequently, 
as in the cases of Chief Justice Pinckney, and Mr. Henry 
Laurens, and Mr. Ralph Izard, the parents took up their 
residences in England to supervise the education of their 
children. The merchants, too, went constantly to order 
in person their goods. The people of means, whether for 
business or pleasure, were continually coming and going 
between Chaiiestown and London. A voyage usually 
took from six to eight weeks, though at times it was ac- 
complished in a month. The favorite packets were the 
Beaufain^ Captain Daniel Curling, and the London, Cap- 
tain Alexander Curling, and the Little Carpenter, so named 
after the Indian chief, Captain Maitland. But Captain 
Daniel Curling was the favorite of all. He was slow, but 
considered sure, and could obtain freight while other 
vessels were idle ; and his cabin was preferred by all who 
wished to cross or recross the Atlantic. He seldom sailed 
or arrived without a full company of Carolinians. 

A traveller in the country immediately after the Revo- 
lution, whose statement, however, must be taken with 
caution, as he was much prejudiced, but the truthfulness 
of whose picture of the state of society and manners of the 
people of the colonies has been fully recognized, describes 
the planters and merchants of South Carolina as well 
bred ; the people strong and expensive in their dress ; 
everything conspiring to make Charlestown the liveliest, 

^ Hist, of the People of the United States (McMaster), vol. I, 51. 



538 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the pleasantest, and the politest place, as it is one of the 
richest, in all America. The large fortunes, he says, that 
have been acquired in the city from the accession and cir- 
culation of its trade, must necessarily have had great in- 
fluence on the manners of the inhabitants ; for of all the 
towns in North America, it is the one in which the con- 
veniences of luxury are most to be met with. Says another, 
a more recent writer, the planters were travellers, readers, 
scholars; the society of Charlestown compared well in 
refinement with that of any city of its size in the world: 
and English visitors long thought it the most agreeable 
in America. 

The merchants of Carolina, as we have seen, unlike 
those of New England, were prospering and contented, 
and the planters were growing rich. But the very wealth 
of the province bore with it the seeds of dissatisfaction. 
While the merchants themselves were busy in their trade, 
and the planters with their ever increasing crops, they 
themselves felt no cause of complaint. They were content 
with their gains and cared little for the spoils of office, 
which were enjoyed by the placemen whom the govern- 
ment were now sending out to fill the best offices in the 
province. They had, few of them, any ambition for these 
things themselves. But for twenty-five or thirty years 
before the Revolution, they had been sending their sons 
to Europe for education, and these, coming home highly 
educated men, many of whom had been admitted to the 
most aristocratic circles in England, and filled with am- 
bition, were not content to see insignificant, incompetent, 
and sometimes vulgar and insolent strangers filling the 
places for which they felt themselves equal, and to which 
they considered they had a right to aspire. The case of 
Chief Justice Pinckney was a warning to them that native 
character and ability were of no account when places were 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 539 

to be found in the colonies with which to reward party 
services at home. Coming from Westminster, where they 
had been accustomed to see Mansfield and Camden presid- 
ing, they turned with disgust from the court in which 
Shinner the buffoon sat and disgraced the Bench. The 
seats in the Governor's Council, in which their fathers and 
grandfathers had sat, bringing to the service of the Crown, 
without pecuniary reward, wisdom and ability, and the 
most devoted loyalty, were now filled by henchmen who 
had come over to Carolina for the sake of a few paltry 
pounds. The planters themselves, too, had begun to 
think that with their wealth the honors of the State 
should be open to them. Josiah Quincy records that he 
heard several of them say, " We none of us, when we grow 
old, can expect the honors of the State ; they are all given 
away to worthless poor sycophants." This was the canker 
which had begun to sap the loyalty of the people of 
Carolina. 

The society of Charlestown was in a more developed 
condition, perhaps, than that of any city of America — 
unless it was that of Philadelphia. This will appear when 
we recall that in buildings, Burke described St. Philip's 
Church, built in 1724, as exceeding everything of the kind 
in America; that the first theatre in America was that in 
Charlestown, in 1735, the next being that in Philadelphia 
in 1749; that the music of the St. Cecilia Society was the 
finest to be heard; that the first attempt at a Public 
Library was in Charlestown, in 1G98, and the Charlestown 
Library Society, organized in 1743, was the second sub- 
scription library, the first being the Philadelphia Library, 
1730-42 — those of Henrico, Virginia, 1623, and of Har- 
vard, 1633, having been but clergymen's libraries, given 
to colleges, and in no sense public libraries; that the 
first fire insurance company was the Friendly Society, 



540 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

organized in Charlestown in 1735, the next being in Phila- 
delphia, in 1752; that the Fellowship Society was but the 
second attempt in America to make provision for lunatics ; 
that there was a Chamber of Commerce in the town as early 
as 1774; and that there were more newspapers in South 
Carolina, in proportion to the population, than in any 
other colony. Charlestown is said, of all the American 
towns, to have approached most nearly to the social refine- 
ment of a great European capital. ^ 

It was in this prospei'ous and happy condition of society 
that the agitation over the Stamp act began, which was 
to rend and divide the people, and, ultimately, to desolate 
the province. But out of which desolation the State of 
South Carolina was to emerge, her independence having 
at last been in a great measure achieved by the valor and 
ability of her own sons when practically deserted by the 
Congressional government of the revolted colonies. 

1 England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 314. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

1765 

Questions of greater magnitude than those involved in 
the controversy with Governor Boone in South Carolina 
were agitating the northern colonies at this time, in which 
this province, however, had little material interest; but in 
which the insolent conduct of Governor Boone disposed 
some of her citizens to concern themselves, and to espouse 
the cause of her sister colonies. 

The political struggles in South Carolina, since the es- 
tablishment of the Royal government, had been all of an 
internal character. The overthrow of the Proprietary rule 
by the j)eople in 1719 had aroused them to a sense of their 
power — a power which they were intent upon exercising 
and extending. As yet they had had no controversy with 
his Majesty's government; but there had been a steady 
growth of the power of the Assembly, or Commons. This 
power had sometimes been extravagantly asserted, and, at 
others, unwarrantably exercised. The Commons had 
claimed to be omnipotent and independent, even of the 
judiciary. It constantly denied and resisted the control of 
the Council. The Council, on the other hand, had been 
equally intent upon the exercise of their power, which 
they conceived to be coequal in the province with that of the 
House of Lords in England. Resisting, on the one hand, 
the pretensions of the Commons, on the other they had 
taken the decisive step of excluding the Governor from 
their deliberations as an Upper House, thus separating and 
defining their executive and legislative capacities. These 

541 



542 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

strusrgrles had taken their tone and color from the tenor of 
political thought in England; but the occasions upon 
which they arose here were produced and influenced by the 
course of events which were peculiar to the development 
of affairs in the province. Through these all — right or 
wrong — there had been a steady advance in the estab- 
lishment of governmental and constitutional rule, and the 
ininciples which had been so zealously, if at some times 
extravagantly, asserted, were now to be applied to the 
greater questions which were arising with the mother 
country, and involving all the colonies. 

The policy of England had been one of protection alike of 
her shipping interest and of her home industries, not only 
against foreigners, but against her own colonies as well as 
against Ireland. In this general policy she "did not differ 
from other European governments. The establishment of 
colonies in America by nations of Europe, as it has been 
observed, was not with a view of building cities and ex- 
tending empires, but for the purpose of carrying on trade ; 
commercial monopoly was, therefore, the leading principle 
of colonial intercourse. To secure to themselves respec- 
tively the most important of the productions of their colo- 
nies, and to retain to themselves exclusively the great 
advantage of supplying those colonies with European 
goods and manufactures, was the chief aim and endeavor 
of them all.i During the Commonwealth Cromwell had 
imposed restrictions upon the commerce of the colonies, 
which particularly affected the West Indies, and was re- 
garded by the Royal adherents there as designed for their 
special punishment, and these they had hoped, upon the 
restoration, would be at once removed; but, on the con- 
trary, they were confirmed and permanently established by 
the Navigation act of King Charles II. This act pro- 

1 Edwards's Hist, of West Indies, vol. II, 3G7. 



I 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 543 

hibited the importation or exportation of any goods or 
commodities into or out of his Majesty's plantations except 
in ships belonging to the subjects of England, or in such 
as were built in and belonging to the plantations, and 
where the master and three-fourths of the marines were 
English subjects. It prohibited, also, any goods or com- 
modities of the growth or manufacture of the colonies to 
be imported into England in any other ships than those 
belonging to England or to the plantations, and navigated 
as above. The act also prohibited the commodities therein 
mentioned, to wit: sugars, tobacco, cotton, indigo, ginger, 
fustic or other dyeing woods of the production of any of 
the English colonies to be exported therefrom to any place 
except to some other English plantation or to England, 
Ireland, Wales, or Berwick. ^ The commodities named in 
tlie act were known as the enumerated articles. To these 
"enumerated" articles rice and molasses were added by 
Statute 3 and 4 Ann. 

So far these restrictions were apparently injurious to the 
southern colonies, and favorable to the northern. They 
were favorable to the New England ship-building interest 
and to the New England sailors; but there was no ship- 
building of any consequence in South Carolina. It may 
be recollected that Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Governor, had 
reported, in 1708, that there were not then above ten or 
twelve sail of ships belonging to the province, about half 
of which had been built here.^ Ramsay tells us that about 
the year 1740 the Carolinians began seriously to attend 
to ship-building ; five shipyards were erected, — one in 
Charlestown, three in the vicinity, and one at Beaufort, 
— and that in them twenty-four square-rigged vessels, 
besides sloops and schooners, were built between the years 

1 Statutes of the JRealm, vol. V, 247. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca. under Pr»p. Gov. (McCrady), 479. 



544 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

1740 and 1779.1 The aazette of October 25, 1773, in 
noticing the launching of a ship at Hobcaw, near Charles- 
town, boasts that we have now twelve Carolina built ships 
employed in the trade between Charlestown and Europe. 
This was the extent of South Carolina's ship-building. 
It had made but little progress in sixty years. 

But the restriction upon the export of rice and indigo 
and cotton was calculated to check the production of these 
her staple commodities, while, under the Navigation acts, 
the non-enumerated articles, the productions of the 
northern colonies, were allowed to be exported to foreign 
nations without any other restriction than that they should 
be sent in ships built by themselves or in England, and 
chiefly manned by British subjects. But there was 
another sphere in which the commercial restrictions fell 
heavily upon the northern colonies. The southern colo- 
nies were agricultural; the northern colonies were not. 
The northern colonies were destined, by their climate, to 
be a manufacturing and commercial people; but this was 
just what the policy of England intended to prevent. 
Before the end of the seventeenth century the northern 
colonies had begun the manufacture of woollen goods. 
This was at once checked. In the same year that rice was 
put upon the enumerated list, it was enacted by Parlia- 
ment that "no wool or manufacture made of or mixed with 
wool, being the produce of English plantations in America, 
shall be loaden in any ship or vessel upon any pretence 
whatever, nor loaden upon any horse, cart, or other car- 
riage to be carried out of the English plantations to 
any other of the said plantations, or to any other place 
whatsoever." South Carolina might send her rice to any 
of the English colonies or to England; but Massachusetts 
could not send a yard of woollen cloth to Connecticut or 

1 Hist, of fSo.-Ca. (Kamsay), vol. II, 265. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 545 

Rhode Island. Pennsylvania possessed iron, and the New 
England colonies the timber for ship-building. In the 
interest of the English manufactures Parliament, in 1719, 
resolved "that the erecting of manufactures in the colonies 
tended to lessen their dependence upon Great Britain," 
and passed a measure that none of the American colonies 
should manufacture iron of any kind, that no smith might 
make so much as a bolt, a spike, or a nail, and that no 
forge should be erected in any of the colonies for making 
"sows, pigs, or cast iron into bar or rod-iron." The King's 
arrow was placed upon all pine trees of requisite dimen- 
sions for masts, reserving them for his Majesty's navy, and 
bounties were given for the import from the American 
colonies to England of tar, pitch, hemp, masts, and yards. 
The means of ship-building were thus, in a great measure, 
restricted, and the materials for it taken to England. The 
finest furs abounded in New England; but no sooner had 
they begun to make them into hats than the English hat- 
ters took the alarm, and Parliament, in 1732, made a law 
forbidding the exportation of American hats not only to 
foreign countries and to the mother country, but even 
from one colony to another.^ These were the real causes 
of discontent in the northern colonies, as they had been in 
Barbadoes more than a hundred years before.^ It suited 
the movers of the Revolution, as it has been said, to raise 
the question as to the abstract right of taxation without 
representation ; ])ut students of the history of the times now 
generally agree that no mere dogma of government, how- 
ever excellent of itself, could have aroused rebellion against 
the mother country. Says Mr. Sabine, in the introduction 

^ England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. II, 8, 9, quoting 
Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, III, 72, 73 ; Tlie American Loyalists^ 
by Lorenzo Sabine, 5. 

^ Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 212. 

VOL. II — 2n 



546 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

to his work on The American Loyalists, it has been com- 
mon to insist that questions of "taxation" and "points of 
abstract liberty " produced the momentous struggle which 
dismembered the British Empire; but the State papers of 
the period, he points out, teach nothing more clearly than 
this, that almost every matter brought into discussion was 
practical and, in some form or other, related to labor, to 
some branch of common industry. There were twenty- 
nine laws which restricted and bound down colonial 
industry; but none of these touched in the least an ab- 
straction, and hardly one of them, until the passage of the 
Stamp act, imposed a direct tax.^ And so, says Lecky, 
the political alienation which was the inevitable and most 
righteous consequence of these laws had already begun, 
and it is to the antagonism of interests they created, more 
than to the Stamp act, or to any isolated instances of 
misgovernment, that the subsequent disruption must be 
ascribed. 2 Mr. Sabine adds that these laws were aimed 
at the North, and England had lost the affection of the 
mercantile and maritime classes of the northern colonies 
full a generation before she alienated the South. They 
forbade the use of waterfalls, the erecting of machinery, 
of looms and spindles, and the working of wood and iron ; 
they shut oat markets for boards and fish, and seized sugar 
and molasses, and the vessels in which these articles were 
carried; and they defined the limitless ocean as but a 
narrow pathway to such of the lands that it embosoms as 
wore the British flag. These restrictions were not felt by 
the southern colonies. The people of this section were 
neither manufacturers, ship-owners, nor sailors. And 
though rice had been put on the enumerated list, it was by 
act of King George 11. permitted to be carried from South 

1 The American Loyalists (Sabine), 2. 

2 England in Che Eiyhteenth Century (Lecky), vol. II, 11. 






UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 647 

Carolina to any port of Europe southward of Cape Finis- 
terre — a privilege afterward extended to North Carolijia 
and Georgia. This was considered a great indulgence, in 
view of the generally accepted colonial policy of Europe 
of the times. It opened to South Carolina rice the whole 
of the Mediterranean ports, besides those of Spain and 
Portugal, without passing through the hands of the mid- 
dlemen of England. 

Again, the trade of New England with the French West 
India Islands, and with the Spanish settlements for molas- 
ses and sugar in exchange for New England timber, had 
been one of the most lucrative branches of New England's 
commerce. As has been said, no trade could have been 
more beneficial to both parties; and the New Englanders 
maintained that it was the foundation of their whole 
system of commerce. But, in the interest of the English 
sugar colonies in the West Indies which desired a mo- 
nopoly of their molasses and sugar, and which, at the time, 
were incapable of furnishing a sufficient market for the 
superfluous articles of American commerce, a prohibitory 
duty had been imposed, in 1733, upon these articles im- 
ported into any of the British plantations from any foreign 
colony. No portion of the commercial code was so deeply 
resented in New England; and its effects would have been 
ruinous had not the law been systematically eluded, with 
the connivance of the revenue officers, and had not smug- 
gling assumed almost the dimensions of regular commerce.^ 

Greuville's determination to enforce these provisions of 
the law was a most serious injury to the prosperity of New 
England. A trade which was in the highest degree natural 
and beneficial, and which had been pursued with scarcely 
any hindrance, was now impeded with the avowed object 
of raising a revenue by imperial authority. As has been 

1 England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. II, 10; III, 334. 



648 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

said in this connection, the most arbitrary new enactments 
hardly provoke bitterer discontent, a keener sense of in- 
justice and hardship than the sudden revival of laws that 
have lapsed into desuetude. Again, the colonies were 
allowed to import no tea except from the mother country, 
and, though it was computed that a million and a half 
pounds of tea were annually consumed by them, estimated 
at .£300,000 annually, not more than a tenth part came 
from England. Indeed, it was said that nine-tenths of 
all the tea in the colonies were smuggled, not one chest 
in five hundred of that which was landed in Boston fell 
into the hands of the officers of the customs.^ This Gren- 
ville determined to stop. New revenue officers were ap- 
pointed, with more rigid rules for the discharge of their 
duties, and English ships of war were stationed off the 
American coast for the purpose of intercepting smugglers. 
But with all this South Carolina was not concerned. Gov- 
ernor Glen had reported but a few years before, "There is 
no country where there is less illegal trade, at least so far 
as I can learn, though if there was any it would be diffi- 
cult to prevent, by reason of the great numbers of rivers 
and creeks, and the small number of officers of the cus- 
toms. "^ No man was more beloved in the community of 
South Carolina than Hector Berenger de Beaufain, who 
was collector of the King's customs for twenty-four years 
(1733-57). A monument erected in St. Philip's Church 
by "his fellow-citizens of the province" bore witness to 
his "unshaken integrity in the discharge of his public 
trust. Never relaxed to the prejudice of the Crown reve- 
nue. Never vigorously enforced to the oppression of the 
innocent." With such relations between the collector of 

^ England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 333 ; The 
American Loyalists (Sabine), 47. 

2 Documents connected ivith So. Ca. (Weston), 87. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 549 

the revenue and the people, there was no need of ships of 
war off Charlestown harbor to prevent smuggling. With 
the great trade which was going on between Charlestown 
and London, and with the privilege of shipping their rice 
to Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean, the Carolina 
planters were doubling their capital every three or four 
years, and were willing to pay for their sugar and tea in 
the regular course of business. South Carolina was pros- 
pering, and these restrictions did not annoy her people. 
But, under Gadsden's lead, a party in Charlestown, prin- 
cipally the mechanics, listened to the complaints of the 
New Englanders, and Governor Boone's unfortunate ad- 
ministration aroused a spirit which was ready to take 
offence. The cause was soon given. 

The Stamp act was passed in 1764. This act was im- 
politic and unwise ; but its constitutionality was fairly an 
open question — a question upon which the best consti- 
tutional lawyers might, and did, differ. The position of 
the American colonies presented the question of taxation 
and representation in an entirely new aspect — an aspect 
which was anomalous. The act was imposed by the 
mother country on the colonies, avowedly at least, to pro- 
vide for the expense of defending them. 

At the close of the war with France, which had left 
England overwhelmed with additional burdens, the whole 
resources of the British Empire had been strained for the 
extension and security of the British territory in America, 
by which, says Lecky, the American colonists had gained 
incomparably more than any other of the subjects of the 
Crown ; the colonies were asked to bear a share in the 
burden of the Empire by contributing a third part — they 
would no doubt ultimately have been asked to contribute 
the whole — of what was required for the maintenance of 
an army of ten thousand men, intended, primarily, for 



550 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

their own defence. One hundred thousand pounds was 
the highest estimate of what the Stamp act would annu- 
ally produce, and it was rather less than a third part of the 
expense of the new army. This was what England asked 
from the most prosperous portion of her Empire. Every 
farthing of which, it intended to be raised in America; 
it was intended, also, to spend here.^ 

When the Cherokee War broke out the people of South 
Carolina loudly called for military assistance from Eng- 
land, and great was the joy, as we have seen, when the 
British troops, under Colonel Montgomery, arrived in 
compliance with Lieutenant Governor Bull's appeal for 
aid. But who was to pay for the support of these troops 
while defending the frontiers of this province? If the 
colonies could not be taxed to do so, then the expense 
must be met either by the voluntary contributions of the 
colonial Assemblies or by the people in England under 
taxes imposed by Parliament. Experience had shown that 
the colonial assemblies could not be relied upon for the 
support of the British troops serving in defence of the 
provinces. It was impracticable, even had the colonial 
Assemblies been willing to tax themselves for this purpose, 
for there was no general body to lay and apportion their 
contributions. This practical difficulty was fully exem- 
plified and developed in the Confederacy during the Revo- 
lution, and was the cause and origin of the establishment 
of the present Union. Such a tax would have required 
the assent and concurrent action of the thirteen different 
colonial Assemblies, or the support of the army would have 
devolved upon the colony in which it was for the time 
serving. Was it just, on the other hand, that, by reason 
of these practical difficulties, the colonies should have 
the benefit of the defence of the military and naval forces 

1 England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 340. 



I 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 651 

of Great Britain and contribute nothing to their support, 
because they had no representation in Parliament? Were 
the colonies to have the advantages of being a part of the 
Kingdom of Great Britain and contribute nothing to the 
common expenses ? 

The analogy in regard to Ireland, which had not been 
taxed because, as alleged, it was not represented in Par- 
liament, surely could not hold. In the first place it was 
begging the question to say that because Parliament had 
never attempted to tax Ireland, it had not the right to do 
so. That the attempt to tax Ireland had not been made 
was a strong inference against the wisdom and policy of 
doing so, which applied, with much force, against the 
policy of attempting it in America. But that was all. 
Ireland had been a distinct sovereignty and nationality, and 
its connection with England was that of a union of states. 
It had a Parliament of its own — a body which could act 
for the whole people. On the other hand, the colonies 
had originated as corporations under charters. An Eng- 
lishman migrating to the colonies did not bring with him 
all, either of his political or civil rights, as was claimed. 
The common law of England, says Mr. Justice Story, is 
not to be taken in all respects as that of America. Our 
ancestors brought with them its general principles, and 
claimed them as their birthright; but they brought with 
them and adopted only that portion which was applicable 
to their situation.^ Acts of Parliament of England, as 
again we have seen, were not applicable to the colonies, 
unless made so by their express terms or reenacted by the 
colonial assemblies.^ An Englishman coming to America 
abandoned many of his rights under these, and submitted 
himself to the provisions of the charter of the colony to 

1 Van yess v. Pacard, 2 Peter's Reports, U. S. Supreme Court, 144. 
^ Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 517-519. 



552 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

which he came. Under the charters of South Carolina the 
Lords Proprietors, who resided in England, were author- 
ized to establish ports of entry and to assess and impose 
customs and subsidies for goods imported; and when the 
government of the Lords Proprietors was overthrown and 
the King had been called upon to take the immediate gov- 
ernment in his own name, and the King had accepted the 
offer and Parliament had confirmed it, surely putting the 
Royal authority upon no higher ground, the King and 
Parliament had at least succeeded to nothing less than the 
rights of the Proprietors under the charter. 

But, supposing that a native English colonist had 
brought with him all the rights pertaining to him as an 
Englishman living in England, how could the Huguenot, 
and the Palatine, and the Swiss, who had come out as 
beneficiaries of the English government, claim constitu- 
tional freedom from taxation unless represented in the 
Parliament of England ? Had they brought any such right 
with them when they reached England as refugees from 
their native lands ? Or did they acquire it on the brief 
sojourn they were allowed to make in England before 
being sent to Carolina? The answer to these questions 
is clear. The Huguenot was not even recognized as a 
citizen of England upon his arrival in Carolina. His 
recognition as such by Sothell was repudiated by the King. 
Could the Frenchmen, asked the English colonist, expect 
to "have equal justice with Englishmen and enjoy the 
same privileges "?i 

Again, an Englishman could not be taken out of Eng- 
land for trial ; but it was expressly provided in the charter 
of Carolina that the inhabitants should not be compelled 
to appear or answer to any suit or plaint out of the prov- 
ince, other than England or Wales. So by the charter a 

1 Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 233, 234, 238. 



^ 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 553 

colonist of Carolina could be carried for trial to England 
or Wales; and, under it, Culpepper had been indicted and 
tried in England, where he was arrested for high treason 
for raising a rebellion in Carolina.^ In 1724 the law 
officers of the Crown had given their opinion that a colony 
of English subjects could not be taxed but by some repre- 
sentative body of their own or by the Parliament of Eng- 
land, and a similar opinion was given in 1744 by Murray, 
afterward Lord Mansfield, who was, however, it should 
be said, one of the strongest advocates of the Stamp act 
and the most vehement opponent of its repeal. ^ In a few 
years, says Lecky, the colonial lawyers appear to have 
agreed substantially with those of England, for in order 
to establish by argument the sole right of their assemblies 
to tax the colonies, they were driven to the necessity of 
denying that the Imperial Parliament had power to legis- 
late for them upon any subject whatever. ^ This doctrine 
undoubtedly was maintained in New England, but it was 
never countenanced in South Carolina. No lawyer in 
South Carolina ever advanced such an opinion ; on the 
contrary, it was strenuously denied by them. 

But, on the other hand after all, as it has been said, the 
Stamp act, although by no means as unjust or as unreason- 
able as alleged, and although it might perhaps in some peri- 
ods of colonial history have passed almost unperceived, did 
unquestionably infringe upon a principle which the English 
race, both at home and abroad, have always regarded with 
peculiar jealousy. The doctrine that taxation and repre- 
sentation are in free nations inseparably connected, that 
constitutional government is closely connected with the 

1 Culpepper'' s Case, Ventri's Reports, vol. I, 349 ; Political Annals of 
Carolina (Chalmers), Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 306. 

2 Lives of the Chief Justices (Campbell), vol. II, 357. 

8 England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 343. 



554 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rights of property, and that no people can be legitimately 
taxed except by themselves or their representatives, lay 
at the very root of the English conception of political 
liberty. 1 

A great political dilemma presented itself. The mother 
country was called upon to protect with her ships and 
arms the territory and commerce of the colonies in America. 
The expense of this should, at least in part, be borne by 
the colonies themselves. But the colonies had no means, 
nor any desire themselves, to impose a general tax for the 
purpose, nor were they willing to be taxed by Parliament 
in England. With great force they denied the right of 
taxation without representation, but at the same time they 
took every occasion to declare, as we shall see, that they 
were not and could not he represented in Parliament. If, 
then, there could be no taxation without representation, 
and there could be no representation, should there be ]3ro- 
tection without taxation ? 

On the other hand, was it not a violation of the 
fundamental principle of constitutional government for 
Parliament in England to tax the colonies under the cir- 
cumstances? It was urged with great force that under 
the unequal system of representation in England many 
communities and thousands of Englishmen living in Eng- 
land were no more represented in Parliament than the 
colonists in America. But though this was doubtless 
true, there was an essential difference in the two cases. 
The unrepresented communities in England were still 
near the seat of government, and could make themselves 
heard and felt, nor were their interests disconnected with 
those who were actually represented. The colonists were 
thousands of miles away across the ocean, and once the 
right of Parliament to tax them was admitted, they would 

1 England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 353. 



« 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 555 

become the common prey of all parties in England. The 
tax proposed was neither unjust nor unreasonable; its 
insignificance — but £100,000, as we have seen, were ex- 
pected from it — was indeed one of the elements of sus- 
picion in the case. Plans for the regulation of the colonies 
had been suggested from time to time by subordinate 
ministers, but they had been set aside alike by the pru- 
dence of Walpole and the generosity of Pitt. But now, 
seeing that no great relief could be obtained from the 
financial pressure at home from this paltry sum, it was 
believed by many that the scheme of Townshend was but 
a pretence of taxation, that its real purpose was the asser- 
tion of a right of restraint and control of the colonies. It 
was believed by others that once the principle of taxation 
of the colonies was established, and admitted by the colo- 
nies, they would be made to pay for every piece of ex- 
travagance and corruption which could not be imposed on 
those at home. 

The question was not a new one. The Stamp act had 
now revived it, but it was as old as the Navigation act. 
More than a hundred years before, the Barbadians, in 
resisting the latter, had declared " they totally disclaimed 
the authority of the British Parliament^ in which they were 
not represented.'''' ^ Edward Randolph, the Collector of the 
King's customs, as early as 1695 pointed out that resistance 
to the navigation laws would end in independence, and 
believed even then that that was its purpose. ^ 

It is a curious historical fact, nevertheless, that the 
Americans, who so resented the principles of protection 
to British commerce under the Navigation acts, and of 

1 Foyer's Hist, of Barbadoes, 53-55 ; Hist, of So. Ca. under Prop. 
Gov. (McCrady), 212. 

2 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 461 ; Hist, of So. Ca. under 
Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 294. 



556 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

taxation without representation under the Stamp act, have 
in practice acted upon both principles in their own govern- 
ment. The principle of protection of certain classes and 
industries, which must necessarily inure to the detriment 
of all others, has been practised in their enactments and 
revenue measures from the establishment of the Union to 
tlie present day. In their territorial government — the 
territories occupying the same relation to the United 
States as the colonies did to Great Britain — and in the 
District of Columbia taxes are laid and collected by the 
general government upon the people, who are without 
representation in Congress. The territories, it is true, 
are allowed to send delegates to Congress, but these dele- 
gates, while allowed to debate, are not allowed to vote, 
and thus have no power to give or withhold the money of 
their constituents. The people in the District of Columbia 
have not even that semblance of representation. ^ If it was 

1 Revised Statutes of the U. S., sec. 1862. In the case of The Ameri- 
can Insurance Co. et al v. Canter^ 1 Peters, 511, involving the relation 
of the people of Florida, upon its cession by Spain, the Supreme Court of 
the United States, Chief Justice Marshall delivering the opinion, held that 
the treaty with Spain, by which Florida was ceded to the United States, 
admitted the inhabitants of Florida to the enjoyment of the privileges, 
rights, and immunities of citizens of the United States, but did not permit 
them to participate in political power nor to share in the government until 
Florida should become a state. In the meanwhile Florida continued to be 
a territory governed by Congress under the Constitution. In the famous 
but now repudiated Dred Scott Case, 19 Howard, U. S. 393, the doctrine 
of the case just cited was much discussed, the court holding that the United 
States, under the Constitution, cannot acquire territory to be held as a 
colony at its will and pleasure, but it may acquire territory which at the 
time has not a population that fits it to become a state, and may govern 
it as a territory until in its judgment the tei-ritory has such a population. 
But this is very indefinite, for, as Congress alone is the judge of the quali- 
fication of the population of the territory, it may hold and govern such a 
territory indefinitely. This is the vital question Congress has now to 
consider in the cases of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. 



I 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 557 

true, as contended by the American colonists, that it is 
a principle of political right and justice, inherent in the 
very nature of things, that there shall be no taxation with- 
out representation, what right has the Congress of the 
United States to-day to tax the inhabitants of the terri- 
tories, and of the District of Columbia, and of the newly 
acquired possessions ? 

It was a great and momentous question which was pre- 
sented b}'- the Stamp act, and as Mansfield on the one 
side, and Camden and Chatham on the other, differed in 
regard to it in England, so did Bull and Gadsden, and 
Wragg and Rutledge in South Carolina. There was, 
indeed, scarcely a family of prominence in the province 
which was not divided upon the subject. ^ 

The Royal government had stood by and encouraged 

1 William Bull stood for the King ; but his nephews, Stephen Bull, 
William Bull, Jr., and William Henry Drayton, joined the Revolutionists. 
Eawlins Lowndes, though conservative in his views, went with the revo- 
lutionary party, but his brother Charles remained loyal to the Crown. 
Four Pinckneys — Charles, Charles Cotesworth, Thomas, and Charles, 
Jr. — were prominent in the revolutionary party, but Charles returned 
to his allegiance to the Crown, and Thomas Pinckney, Jr., is found 
enrolled as a loyal subject of Great Britain. William Moultrie became 
the hero of Fort Sullivan, June 28, 1776, and his brother, Alexander, 
served with him in the Continental army, but their brother, John, remained 
Lieutenant Governor of Florida under the King. William Henry Dray- 
ton, after first upholding the Stamp act and resisting the non-importation 
association, became a leader of the Revolutionists ; his cousin, William 
Drayton, continued true to the King, as Chief Justice of Florida. Gabriel 
Manigault contributed munificently to support the rebel government ; 
but Gabriel Manigault, Jr., declared his allegiance to the mother country. 
Thomas Hey ward signed the Declaration of Independence ; but his father, 
Daniel Heyward, was a Tory. Peter, Hugh, and Daniel Horry were dis- 
tinguished leaders under Marion. Elias Horry declai-ed his loyalty to 
the King. Lsaac Huger became a Brigadier General in the Continental 
service, and Major Benjamin Huger was killed on the lines of Charles- 
town in the same service ; but Daniel Huger at one time gave hi his sub- 
mission to the King, and so did Francis Huger. Three Hamptons — 



558 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the people of South Carolina in their revolt against the 
Lords Proprietors, and against their protest had accepted 
the result of that revolution. They had helped the people 
to learn their power and had benefited by its exercise ; but 
there had not been wanting even then those who foresaw, 
as Randolph did twenty-five years before, the inevitable 
tendency of that lesson. 

Since then the people of Carolina had made great strides 
in the study and maintenance of liberty and constitutional 
government. The advance, it is true, had been made by 
antagonism and sometimes not apparently as of design; 
but it had always continued. It was first the Bench and 
Bar maintaining the Habeas Corpus act as against the tyran- 
nical acts of the Commons claiming for themselves an 
omnipotence and an independence of Parliament. Then 
it was the struggle of the Council with the Governor for 
the recognition of that body as a distinct legislative part 
of the government, independently of his Excellency's 
presence or control. Then it was the struggle of the Com- 
mons against the Council, claiming for itself the preroga- 
tion of a House of Peers. During these controversies the 
discussion had been carried on with great ability, and 
three essentials of free government had been firmly estab- 
lished, to wit: (1) the absolute independence and authority 
of the bench as a branch of government; (2) the dis- 
tinction of the three departments of government, the 
legislative, judicial, and executive ; and (3) the establish- 
ment of a proper relation between the two houses of the 
legislature. The struggle, however, over this last point 
was not yet, however, entirely closed. We shall soon see 

Henry, Richard, and John — were rebels from the first. Wade Hampton, 
as late as September, 1780, declared himself a loyal subject to the Crown, 
but in 1781 he renounced his allegiance and became one of the most brill- 
iant officers in the American army. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 559 

it rising again and entering into the great struggle of the 
Revolution. 

It has been observed by a recent writer that the gen- 
eration now living can read the history of the Revolution 
dispassionately, and to them it is growing clear that our 
ancestors were technically in the wrong. For centuries 
Parliament had been theoretically absolute, therefore it 
might constitutionally tax the colonies or do whatsoever 
else with them it pleased.^ Without subscribing to so 
broad a statement of the case, we of the present day should 
surely prepare ourselves to consider the questions which 
so divided our forefatheis of this State without partiality, 
and with a full recognition of the equal patriotism of both 
sides in that momentous controversy. We must prepare 
ourselves also for a just and at times severe criticism upon 
the conduct of the one side and of the other, for alas! we 
shall see, in this as in all other like struggles and commo- 
tions, cruel and brutal conduct exercised in the name of 
liberty. We shall have to acknowledge that some of those, 
whose names have come down to us as bywords of Tory 
cruelty, had themselves dreadful wrongs to avenge. We 
shall see great hardships inflicted and monstrous tyranny 
exercised by those who appear really to have believed that 
they were thus advancing the cause of freedom. ^ 

1 Brooks Adams's The. Emancipation of Mnssachnsetts (1887), 317. 

2 The conduct of the South Carolina Revolutionists in this respect was 
in no wise different from that of the Revolutionists in other colonies. In 
all there was the same tyranny of the mob, suppression of all free discus- 
sion, and inquisitorial proceedings. For numerous instances of ill treat- 
ment of those who were suspected of lukewarmness to the cause in the 
different colonies, see Diary of Am. Revolution (Moore), vol. I ; The 
American Loyalists (Sabine), 7[> et seq. ; "The Connecticut Loyalists" 
(Gilbert), Am. Hist. lievieic, vol. IV, No. 2, January, 1899, 280. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

1765 

While the Stamp act was under consideration in Par- 
liament, the General Assembly of Massachusetts asserted 
its sole right to pass laws of taxation, and upon its 
passage lost no time in providing against its operation. 
On the 6th of June, 1765, they adopted a resolution which 
gave rise to the first American Congress. They appointed 
New York as the place, and the middle of October as the 
time for the meeting, and transmitted to the several 
assemblies in the different colonies addresses requesting 
their concurrence and cooperation, and inviting them to 
send committees who should meet theirs in the Congress 
to consult upon the subject.^ 

Lieutenant Governor Bull, then administering the gov- 
ernment in the absence of Governor Boone, having re- 
ceived notice of the act, indicated his purpose of enforcing 
it. To embarrass him in this the Commons first raised a 
question as to the authenticity of the copy of the act he 
had received. They desired to know through what channel 
it had been transmitted to him; whether he had received it 
from the Secretary of State, the Lords of Trade, or any other 
authentic source. To allay the excitement. Lieutenant 

1 Memoirs of the Am. Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 36. The author 
of this work, which we shall have occasion frequently to quote in the 
remainder of this volume, was Governor John Drayton, son of William 
Henry Drayton, who, as we shall see, took a most conspicuous part in 
the commotions which ended in the Revolution, and became one of the 
leaders in that struggle. The work was compiled by Governor John 
Drayton principally from his father's papers. 

660 



11 

I 

I 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 561 

Governor Bull replied that he had received it from Thomas 
Boone, Governor of the province, who was then in Eng- 
land. This did not satisfy the Commons; they held that 
while Mr. Boone was out of the province they could not 
regard him in any other light than as a private gentleman; 
and they informed the Lieutenant Governor that the act 
coming through such a channel was not in their opinion 
sufficiently authentic to place him under the obligation of 
enforcing it. Lieutenant Governor Bull and his Coun- 
cil, in which there then sat John Drayton, John Guerard, 
Daniel Blake, and Henry Middleton, answered that the 
channel through which the act had come was equally 
authentic with those by which many acts of Parliament 
had been received, and which the Assembly had on various 
occasions recognized. The Assembly was not disposed 
to admit this, but they did not press the point further. 
Tliey contented themselves with a declaration of the prin- 
ciples they maintained, which they ordered to be printed, 
and the appointment of commissioners to the Congress 
called by Massachusetts. The resolutions they adopted 
were as follows : — 

" Resolved that his Majesty's subjects in Carolina owe the same 
allegiance to the Crown of (ireat Britain that is due from his subjects 
born there. That his Majesty's liege subjects of this province are 
entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural-born 
subjects within the Kingdom of Great Britain. That the inhabitants 
of this province appear also to be confirmed in all the rights afore- 
mentioned, not only by their charter, but by an act of Pailianient, 
1 )th, George II. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a 
people and the undoubted right of Englishmen that no taxes be im- 
})osed on them, but with their own consent. That the people of this 
province are not, and from their local circumstances cannot be, repre- 
sented in the House of Commons in Great Britain; and, farther, that 
in the opinion of this House the several powers of legislation in 
America were constituted in some measure upon the apprehension of 

VOL. II — 2 o 



562 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

this impracticability. Tliat the only representatives of the people of 
this province are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no 
taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but 
by the legislature of this province. That all supplies to the Crown, 
being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with 
the pi'inciples and spirit of tlie British constitution for the people of 
Great Britain to grant to his Majesty the property of the people of this 
province. Tliat the act of Parliament, entitled 'An act for granting 
and applying certain stamp duties and other duties on the British 
colonies and plantations in America,' etc., by imposing taxes on the 
inhabitants of this province, and the said act and several other acts, 
by extending the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty beyond its 
ancient liniits7~hfi''^e a manifest tendency to'^itivert Tlie rights and 
liberties of this province. That the duties imposed by several late 
acts of Parliament on the people of the province will be extremely 
burdensome and grievous, and, from the scarcity of gold and silver, 
the payment of them absolutely impracticable. That, as the profits 
of the trade of the people of this province ultimately centre in Great 
Britain to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to take 
from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all the sup- 
plies granted to the Crown ; and, besides, as every individual in this 
province is as advantageous at least as if he were in Great Britain, 
and as they pay their full proportion of taxes for the support of his 
Majesty's government here (which taxes are equal or more in propor- 
tion to our estates than those paid by our fellow-subjects in Great 
Bi-itaiii upon theirs), it is unreasonable for them to be called upon to 
pay any further part of the charges of the government there. That 
the assemblies of this province have from time to time, whenever 
requisitions have been made to them by his Majesty for carrying on 
jnilitary operations, either for defence of themselves or America 
in general, most cheerfully and liberally contributed their full pro- 
portion of men and money for these services. That though the rep- 
resentatives of the people of this province had equal assurances and 
reasons with those of the other provinces to expect a proportional reim- 
bursement of those immense charges they had been at for his IMajesty's 
service in the late war, out of the several Parliamentary grants for 
the use of America ; yet they have obtained only their portion of the 
first of those grants, and the small sum of £28.5 sterling received since. 
That, notwithstanding, whenever his Majesty's service shall for the 
future require the aid of the inhabitants of this province, and they 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 563 

shall be called upon for this purpose in a constitutional way, it shall 
be their indispensable duty most cheerfully and liberally to grant to 
his Majesty their proportion, according to their ability, of men and 
money for the defence and security and other public services of the 
British American colonies. That the restrictions on the trade of the 
people of this province, together with the late duties and taxes imposed 
on them by act of Parliament, must necessarily greatly lessen the con- 
sumption of British manufactures amongst them. That the increase, 
prosperity, and happiness of the people of this province depend on 
the full and free enjoyment of their rights and liberties and on an 
affectionate intercourse vifith Great Britain. That the readiness of 
the colonies to comply with his Majesty's requisitions, as well as their 
inability to bear any additional taxes beyond what is laid on them by 
their respective legislatures, is apparent from several grants of Parlia- 
ment to reimburse them part of the heavy expenses they were at in 
the late war in America. That it is the right of the British subjects 
of this province to petition the King or either House of Parliament. 

" Ordered, that these votes be printed and made public, that a just 
sense of the liberty and the firm sentiments of loyalty of the repre- 
sentatives of the people of this province may be known to their con- 
stituents, and transmitted to posterity." 

Having thus expressed their sentiments, the Commons 
appointed Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, and John 
Rutledge to attend the Congress called by Massachusetts 
to meet in New York.^ 

In the meanwliile stamps began to arrive in the various 
parts of the country. We have a minute, though not per- 
haps an altogether frank, account of what transpired upon 
their ariival at Charlestown, published in the Gazette.'^ 

1 Memoirs of the Am. Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 41 ; So. Ca. 
GnzPtie and Country Journal, December 17, 1765. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, No. 1607, October 19-31, 1765. Republished in 
Charleston Year Book for 1885 (Courtenay), 331. 

There appears in Drayton's Memoir's (vol. I, 41-46) a most interest- 
ing story of the arrival of the stamps in a sloop of war, which anchored 
off Fort .Johnson, under its guns; of the secret formation of a party of 
150 citizens who in the night crossed the river, seized the fort, confined 



564 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

From this, with the letters of Mr. Henry Laurens filling 
out some of the details which the Gazette would have sup- 
pressed, and the journals of the court, we may gather 
probably a pretty accurate story of the occurrences at the 
time. 

Late in the evening of Friday, the 18th of October, 

the 2;arrison, loaded the cannons with ball and grape-shot, and raised a 
blue flag with three white crescents upon it, which the captain of the 
sloop of war seeing in the morning demanded its meaning, and, that 
thereupon, an officer who was sent ashore was shown the preparations 
made to blow the sloop of war to pieces if the stamps were not taken 
away, which, after considerable parleying, tlie captain agreed to do, and 
ignominiously took the stamps aboard and sailed away with them. 

The author of this work has not been able to adopt this story. It is 
told, it is true, with great particularity of detail by one who says he was 
of the party. But it was not published for more than fifty years after 
the transaction ; and we have the minute contemporaneous account of 
what took place day by day, in which there is no mention or even allu- 
sion to such an attack upon Fort Johnson. It is scarcely credible that a 
British naval officer would have acted such an ignominious part, and 
taken away the stamps at the threat of a mob. The execution of Byng 
(1757) was of too recent occurrence. Such cowardly conduct would have 
been noised over England and America. There is no mention in the 
Gazettes of the arrival of any such sloop of war. The stamps were brought 
in a merchantman, the Heart of Oak, not in a sloop of war. Lieutenant 
Governor Bull would certainly have taken active steps to arrest the 
parties. He makes no allusion to such an event in his proclamation. 
The stamps were not carried away. Lieutenant Governor Bull advertised 
that they remained at Fort Johnson ; and the journals of the court show 
that it was not the absence of the stamps, but that no one would discharge 
the duties of a stamp officer, which prevented their use. The story very 
probably has some foundation. It is not at all improbable that a party 
went down to Fort Johnson and compelled Mr. Saxby and Mr. Lloyd to 
make the declaration which they did, and the presence near the fort of 
the ketch. Speedwell, may have become confused in the mind of Mr. 
Drayton's informant in his old age, with that of a sloop of war. Old 
soldiers of the late war between the States are familiar with many such 
instances of confusion and perversion in the minds and memories of per- 
fectly upright and honest men in relating the events of the war of thirty 
odd years ago. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 565 

the ship Planter'' s Adventure^ Captain Miles Lawley, from 
London, came to anchor under the guns of Fort Johnson. 
It had been reported some time before that a distributor of 
stamps for this' province was coming over in this ship, and 
from the vessel's not coming up to town it was supposed 
that there was on board either a stamp officer, stamps, or 
stamped paper. Early Saturday morning, the 19th, there 
appeared at the intersection of Broad and Church streets, 
near Mr. Dillon's tavern, — the most central and public 
part of the town, — suspended on a gallows twenty feet 
high, an effigy designed to represent a distributor of stamped 
paper, to which were affixed labels expressive of the sense 
of a people unshaken in their loyalty, but tenacious of 
just liberty. On the gallows, in very conspicuous charac- 
ters, was written "Liberty and no Stamp Act," and on the 
back of the principal figure these words, " Whoever shall 
dare attempt to pull down these effigies had better been 
born with a millstone about his neck and cast into the sea." 
These figures remained suspended in this manner, during 
the whole da}^ without any one offering to disturb or take 
them down, the Court of General Sessions sitting all the 
while but a square away; nor was there, the G-azette adds, 
the least riot or disturbance, though a great concourse of 
people incessantly resorted to the place of exhibition. 
Colonel Henry Laurens, writing on the 22d to a friend, 
tells him that "some of our folks were wise enough to 
exhibit effigies on Saturday last, a minute and pompous 
account of which I suppose yon will see in the G-azette. 
I was out of toAvn and saw not the farce, but some sensible 
men have convinced me that six men of spirit could in the 
beginning have crushed the whole show; whereas, meeting 
with no opposition, they carried their point with a high 
hand."i 

1 Johnson's Traditions, 14. 



566 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In the evening the figures were taken down and placed 
in a cart or wagon drawn by eight or ten horses in a pro- 
cession down Broad Street to the Bay, attended by at least 
two thousand persons, it is said. From the Exchange the 
procession moved down the Bay to Tradd Street, and pro- 
ceeding up that street it halted at the door of a house 
belonging to George Saxby, Esq., who was known to 
be on his voyage from England, and was supposed to be 
coming with stamps as a distributor. Mr. Saxby was a 
man of consequence in the community, against whom there 
was no popular personal objection. Arriving at Mr. 
Saxby's residence, then occupied by Captain William 
Coats, the mob demanded " whether there was any stamped 
paper in the house," and there being some delay in open- 
ing the doors, it required great prudence and no less exer- 
tion of influence, we are told by the G-azette, to restrain 
them from levelling the house to the ground; as it was, 
considerable damage was done, and the house was ran- 
sacked in the search for stamps. None, however, being 
found, the procession resumed its march to the green, back 
of the brick barracks,^ where the effigies were committed 
to the flames amidst the loud and repeated shouts of an 
increasing multitude. The bells of St. Michael's rang 
mufded all day, and during the procession there was a 
most solemn knell for the burial of a coffin on which was 
inscribed "American Liberty." 

No outrages whatever were committed during the whole 
procession, says the Gazette, except the trifling damage 
done to Mr. Saxby's house, whose furniture, it mentions, 
however, it was said had been mostly removed into the 
country ten days before. But after the procession and 
funeral, diligent search was made for another gentleman 

1 The brick barracks were situated near where the jail and Roper Hos- 
pital now stands. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 567 

upon a report prevailing in the evening that he was 
appointed distributor of the stamps, and not Mr. Saxby. 
This gentleman, says the Gazette^ not being found that 
night, had like to have produced some commotion, but 
the next da}- being Sunday, a solemn declaration was 
stuck up at the Exchange, purporting "that he neither 
had received a commission, knew of his appointment, or 
that the stamps were consigned to him," Avhich in some 
measure appeased the people. This person was Mr. Caleb 
Lloyd, the commandant of Fort Johnson. 

The Gazette made light of the damage done to Mr. 
Saxby's house, and of the conduct of the mob there, but 
Lieutenant Governor Bull took a more serious view of the 
matter. He at once, on Monday morning, issued a proc- 
lamation reciting that a number of persons unknown had 
on Saturday night before assembled "together and in a 
riotous and tumultuous manner entered into the house of 
William Coats, and did there commit several outrages and 
acts of violence," and offered a reward of <£50 sterling to 
any person who would discover the person or persons con- 
cerned in the same. 

Nothing more occurred until Wednesday, the 23d, when 
liis Majesty's ketch, ^ the Speedwell, commanded by Captain 
Fanshawe, came down from Hobcaw, — a shij)yard on 
Cooper River, — immediately proceeded to Fort Johnson, 
the garrison of which had been strengthened, and anchored 
close thereto. The same evening, says the Gazette, it was 
reported that the stamped papers had been brought up to 
town unobserved and lodged in the house of a gentleman 
in Ansonboro, upon which a number of people went 
thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report, but finding 

1 Ketch — an old English term applied to a vessel equipped with two 
masts, usually from 100 to 250 tons' burden — nearly synonymous with 
the modern term " yacht." — Brande. 



568 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

none, they returned quietly without offering the least 
insult to any person whatever. 

This person was no other than Colonel Henry Laurens. 
Colonel Laurens, as it has already appeared, was a gentle- 
man of high standing in the community, and a merchant 
of great respectability and large fortune. He was known 
to be opposed to the Stamp act, but was equally opposed 
to these riotous proceedings, which he had discounte- 
nanced. Li a letter to his friend of October 11, he thus 
stated his position: ^ — 

" Conclude not hence that I am an advocate for the Stamp act. 
No, by no means. 1 would give, I would do, a great deal to procure 
a repeal of the law which inq^oses it upon us; but I am sure that 
nothing but a regular, decent, becoming representation of the inex- 
pediency and inutility of that law will have the desired eifect, and 
that all irregular, seditious practices will have an evil tendency, even 
perhaps to perpetuate that, and bring upon us other acts of Parlia- 
ment big with greater mischiefs." 

Suspicion had in some way been aroused that he had 
some of the stamps. He then lived in the cottage we 
have mentioned, and into his beautiful garden a crowd 
burst demanding the stamps, which they charged him with 
concealing. Colonel Laurens, in another letter to his 
friend, has left us an account of what took place, and it 
scarcely bears out the statement of the G-azette as to the 
polite and amiable manner in which he was treated. He 
met the intruders with great natural indignation. He 
assured them and pledged his word that he had no stamps 
in his house, and reminded them of his Avell-known position 
in regard to the act. He appealed to them on account of 
his wife's health, who was ill, not to disturb his premises 
and violate the sanctity of his home; but in vain! The 
only reply was a brace of cutlasses across his breast and 

1 Johnson's Traditions, 14. 



n 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 569 

cries of "Light ! light ! search ! search !" His firmness, 
however, and his fortunate discovery of some of the ring- 
leaders, notwithstanding their disguises, and his calling 
them by name, frightened them and prevented their enter- 
ing his house; but they searched his outbuildings and 
broke into his cellar, where they wasted much of his wine. 
It was a fortunate circumstance, however, that though 
heated with liquor and armed with cutlasses and clubs, 
they did no more damage, and that his garden was not 
in the least injured. ^ 

From Colonel Laurens's house the mob turned their 
course to the residence in King Street of Chief Justice 
Shinner. But he, though aroused from his slumbers, was 
equal to the occasion. His Irish wit stood him in good 
stead. He assured the mob he had nothing to do with 
the stamps, and that they were welcome to search every 
part of his house — which they did without ceremony, but 
found nothing. While they were searching, the Chief 
Justice very complacently had bowls of punch provided, 
and did not hesitate to drink with the rioters from his own 
liquor their favorite toast, '"''Damnation to the Stamp Act! " 
The crowd after this dispersed without further interrup- 
tion to peaceable citizens. ^ 

The next morning, Thursday, the 24th, by order of his 
honor the Lieutenant Governor, an advertisement was 
stuck up at the Watch House, signed by the Clerk of the 
Council, giving notice "that the stamps lately arrived 
were lodged in Fort Johnson, till it should be necessary 
to remove them from thence," which, says the Gazette^ 
had the good effect that it prevented troublesome visits 
and inquiries to other gentlemen who might have been sus- 
pected of receiving ^the stamps into their charge. 

1 Johnson's Traditions^ 14-16. 

^Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 48. 



570 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

There was some threat of another riot when the Carolina 
Packet., Caj)tain Robson, arrived from London on Friday- 
evening, the 25th, but it subsided as soon as it was shown 
that no stamps were on board, and that Mr. Saxby had 
taken his passage and was on board of the Heart of Oak., 
Captain Gunn. On Saturday this vessel arrived, bringing 
Mr. Saxby, as was then expected; but having information 
of what was passing here, instead of coming up to town, 
he went ashore at Fort Johnson. It was soon learned 
that, as expected, Mr. Caleb Lloyd was really to be a dis- 
tributor of stamps, whereupon numbers of people again 
assembled, and, as the Gazette expressed it, seemed very 
uneasy — an uneasiness in which they soon made Mr. Saxby 
and Mr. Lloyd to share ; for, as the Gazette puts it, Mr. 
Saxby being made acquainted at the fort of the commo- 
tions which had arisen throughout America on account of 
the Stamp act, and that it was as little relished here as 
elsewhere, he expressed great concern that his acceptance 
of an office under it — that of inspector of the duties — 
had proved so odious and disagreeable to the people, and 
in order to restore the public peace — which there was too 
much reason otherwise to fear might be disturbed — made 
a voluntary offer to suspend the execution of his office till 
the determination of the King and Parliament of Great 
Britain, upon an united application to be made from his 
Majesty's colonies for the repeal of an act that had created 
so much confusion, should be known. Mr. Lloyd, who 
was then also at Fort Johnson, made a like voluntary 
declaration in regard to his office of distributor. How 
far these declarations were voluntary, as alleged, may well 
be doubted. But, however that may be, the declarations 
in writing were publicly read on the Bay on Sunday 
evening, the 27th, to the general joy, it was said, of 
the inhabitants, which was shown by loud and repeated 



11 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 571 

acclamations and the ringing of St. Michael's bells 
unmuffled. 

On Monda}^ morning, the 28th, St. Michael's bells were 
again rung, and vessels in the harbor displayed their colors. 
A party went over to Fort Johnson — friends, it was said, 
of the two officers — to bring them up under their protec- 
tion. They came ashore at noon from a boat, in the head 
of which was hoisted a Union flag with the word " Liberty" 
in the centre and a laurel branch on the top of the staff. 
Upon their landing, a lane was formed amidst the greatest 
concourse of people, the Gazette observes, that ever were 
assembled upon any occasion, being supposed upwards 
of eleven thousand souls, ^ and a new declaration was pub- 
licly read under the hands and seals of the two gentlemen, 
in which they solemnly declared and protested before God 
that they would not exercise their offices until it was 
known whether Parliament would determine to enforce 
the act after receiving the united application of the colo- 
nies for its repeal. This declaration was received with 
hearty shouts of approbation. Then Mr. Saxby and Mr. 
Lloyd verbally assured the people that the declaration read 
was their free and voluntary act, and that it was their inten- 
tion strictly to adhere to its intent and meaning. Where- 
upon, says the Gazette, the air rang with music of bells, 
drums, hautboys, violins, hurrahs, firing of cannon, etc., 
and carrying the Liberty flag before them, the music con- 
tinuing, Mr. Saxby and Mr. Lloyd were conducted to Mr. 
Dillon's tavern, and after taking some refreshments there, 
to their own houses. 

By three o'clock, the Gazette tells us, every one had 

1 The GazeMe must have far overestimated this crowd. Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, in 1770, estimated the whole population of the town at 
but 10,863, black and white. — Letter to Lord Hillsboro, November 30, 
1770. 



572 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

retired to his own house and all was peace and good order, 
and at night the streets were patrolled to see that no injury 
or insult should be offered to the persons or property of 
the gentlemen who had suspended the execution of their 
offices ; but the satisfaction of the public was so universal 
and complete that no such thing seemed even to be thought 
of, and the town was remarkably composed. The damage 
done to Mr. Saxby's windows the G-azette estimated at 
X5 sterling, which it announced would be made good. 
And thus happily ended an affair, observes the G-azette in 
conclusion of its full account of the proceedings, from 
which the most terrible consequences were apprehended, 
the people relying upon the wisdom and justice of the 
Parliament in receiving and hearing their humble remon- 
strances, and granting the relief prayed for. 

The G-azette adds, that to-morrow being the 1st of 
November, when the act was to go into operation, most 
of the business in jDublic offices will cease, and from this 
day, the 31st of October, the publication of the South 
Carolma Gazette will also be suspended, it being impos- 
sible to continue it without great loss to the printer when 
the numerous subscribers thereto have signified, almost to 
a man, that they will not take one stamped newspaper, if 
stamps could be obtained. The publication accordingl}- 
ceased, and was not resumed until the repeal of the act. 

But what was now to be done? The provisions of the 
law were highly penal upon all j^ersons transacting any 
legal business without stamps. Not only suitors and law- 
yers, but the judges and clerk of court, and even the 
Governor himself, were subject to penalties for its viola- 
tion. In this dilemma the judges and lawyers met to 
consider the situation, but could devise no relief. 

On the 13th of November, Chief Justice Shiiiner, finding 
himself alone on the Bench, entered an order reciting that 




UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 573 

lie and the other officers of the court having come to the 
knowledge of the act, and the necessity under it of the 
use of stamps in recording, enrolling, entering, and filing 
papers, of which the officers of the court were specially 
charged: "And whereas the officers appointed under the 
said act, inspector of the said duties and distributor of the 
stamped papers for the province, have notified his honor 
the Lieutenant Governor that they decline acting in these 
several and respective stations until his Majestj^'s pleasure 
touching the carrying the said act into execution shall be 
further known, by which means no business can be pro- 
ceeded upon until stamped papers can be had. The court 
therefore being of opinion that no business can be pro- 
ceeded with until stamped papers are produced," he or- 
dered the court adjourned to the 3d of December, and its 
adjournments weie continued until the 4th of March, 1766. 
On this day Rawlins Lowndes, Benjamin Smith, and 
Daniel d'O^ley came into court, produced and presented 
to the Chief Justice his Majesty's commissions appointing 
them Associate Justices of the Common Pleas, which being 
read in open court and recorded, they took their seats on 
the Bench. Thereupon, doubtless in pursuance of a previ- 
ous understanding, Mr. Bee, attorne}^ for the plaintiff in 
a certain cause, arose and moved for judgment. To this 
Mr. Rutledge, representing the defendant, said that he 
had no manner of objection. Mr. Manigault, also appear- 
ing as counsel for the plaintiff, spoke very fully in support 
of the motion, as also did Mr. Pinckney, Mr. Parsons, 
and Mr. Rutledge, who, though not concerned for the 
plaintiff in the particular cause, said they were concerned 
in others of a similar nature. The motion was opposed 
by the Attorney General, Mr. Egerton Leigh, on account 
of the want of stamps which still subsisted in the province. 
The question having been very fully argued on both sides. 



r>i4 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the court took a recess till the afternoon to consider it, 
when upon resuming their session the court, that is, the 
Assistant Judges, Lowndes, Smith, and D'Oyley, were 
unanimously of opinion that under the peculiar circum- 
stances and the steps which had been taken by the different 
provinces in America to obtain a repeal of the Stamp act, 
that no positive determination be given, but the case be 
postponed until the next Return-day, ^ which would be the 
1st of April. On that day the Assistant Judges decided 
to proceed with the business, and ordered a judgment, 
which was moved for, entered. ^ The Chief Justice dis- 
sented, but his dissent would not have prevailed had not 
Mr. Dougal Campbell, the Clerk, interposed his objec- 
tion, which in this case was more effectual than that of the 
Chief Justice. He refused to enter the order or issue a 
process under it. Upon this the Assistant Judges re- 
quested the Lieutenant Governor to suspend him, but this 
Governor Bull refused, as was to have been expected, 
declaring that in his opinion the circumstances of Mr. 
Campbell's conduct did not subject him to the charge 
of disobedience; especially, the Governor added, as his 
compliance with the judges' request must subject him not 
only to the King's displeasure in general, but to the more 
severe penalties and disabilities of the act. It was one 
thing for the Assistant Judges to brave the danger of their 
removal from a Bench they were but voluntarily serving 
upon for the honor, but quite another for Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull to risk his high position, and that, too, in a 
cause with which he did not sympathize. The Assistant 

^ Return-day — the day upon which the court would sit in banc. 
Jacob's Lmo Diet., vol. V, 523; vol. VI, 211. 

2 This account of the proceedings of the court are taken from the 
record in the Court Book, 1763-65, now in the oifice of the Clerk of the 
General Sessions and Common Pleas, Charleston, S.C. See also Memoirs 
of the Rcvohiiion (Drayton), vol. I, 48. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 575 

Judges then referred their letter to the Commons' House 
of Assembly on its meeting in March, 1766, by whom it 
was referred to a committee which had just been appointed 
to consider a memorial of the merchants and traders of 
Charlestown and others. In this petition the merchants 
had represented the great loss and inconvenience to them 
by the closing of the courts, and urged that it was not the 
business or duty of suitors to provide stamps for the courts, 
— a plea which would have come with better grace had 
not the petition borne the name of Cannon and William- 
son and others, who had taken an active part in preventing 
their distribution. 

A considerable correspondence followed between Peter 
Manigault, the Speaker, and the Lieutenant Governor. 
But Bull remained firm, and sent a message to the Assem- 
bly intimating in what manner only he would cooperate 
in this or any other matter which might be questioned by 
the King. The Commons had to content themselves with 
the passage of a series of resolutions declaring that the 
court had a right to determine all questions arising in a 
cause before it, and to make all orders for regulating its 
practice, and could not be controlled and obstructed in 
doing so by its clerk ; that Dougal Campbell, by his 
refusal to obey the orders of the court, had been guilty of 
a high contempt and had offered the greatest indignity to 
the court, and that the Lieutenant Governor ought to have 
suspended him ; that Dougal Campbell and all persons 
suppoiting him in his insult and contumacy had therein 
pursued measures derogatory to his Majesty's authority 
delegated to the court — destructive to the rights and lib- 
erties of the subject, subversive of their best birthright 
and inheritance, and highly injurious to the good people 
of the province ; that it was the indisputable right of all 
good subjects to their most gracious sovereign, George III, 



576 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to preserve public peace and good will and a due obedience 
to the laws, etc. These resolutions the House published on 
the 7th of May, 1766, with an account of all their proceed- 
ings upon the subject, in a pamphlet under the title of 
The Votes of the Commons'' House of Assembly of South 
Carolina.^ 

In the meanwhile the Congress, to which Lynch, Gads- 
den, and Rutledge had been sent, had met in New York 
on the 3d of October, and in it these gentlemen from 
South Carolina had taken a prominent and controlling 
part. No colony, says Bancroft, was better represented 
than South Carolina. Her delegation gave a chief to two 
of the three great committees, and in all that was done 
well, he adds, her mind visibly appeared. 

The great question before that Congress was as to the 
safest ground upon which to rest the liberties of America. 
Should they build on charters or natural justice, on prece- 
dents and fact or abstract truth, on special privileges or 
universal reason? Massachusetts and Connecticut were 
inclined to rest much upon chartered rights ; but Gadsden, 
of South Carolina, would not place the hope of America 
on that foundation, and spoke against it with irresistible 
impetuosit3^ "A confirmation of our essential and com- 
mon rights as Englishmen may be pleaded from charters 
safely enough ; but any further dependence upon them may 
be fatal." "We should stand," he continued, "upon the 
broad common ground of those natural rights that we all 
feel and know as men and as descendants of Englishmen." 
Gadsden was no lawyer, nor can it be claimed for him 
that he was a statesman, but he was undoubtedly right in 
this. The charters, of South Carolina especiall}^, would 
afford no safe ground upon which to base a resistance to 
the imposition of this tax, had the charter then been in 

1 Memoirs of the Am. Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 49-57. 



1 



t 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVEFiNMENT 577 

existence ; but the charter had been surrendered and was 
tlien of no force. If the imposition of this tax was to be 
resisted, it must be on the bald ground that Englishmen 
had always found sufficient, to wit: the right of revolu- 
tion ; the right to throw off a government which was be- 
coming unsuited to the new and developing conditions in 
America; the right to govern themselves; the right of 
home rule. Gadsden and Lynch also vigorously denied 
the propriety of approaching either House of Parliament 
with a petition. "The House of Commons," reasoned 
Gadsden, " refused to receive the addresses when the matter 
was pending; besides, we neither hold our rights from 
them nor from the Lords." But yielding to the majority, 
Gadsden suppressed his opposition ; " for," said he, " union 
is most certainly all in all."^ Well did the great his- 
torian, in an early edition of his work, declare, "As 
the united American people spread through the vast 
expanse over which their jurisdiction now extends, be it 
remembered that the blessing of union is due to the warm- 
heartedness of South Carolina. "2 

The Congress adopted a series of resolutions declara- 
tory of the principles upon which the colonies resisted 
the Stamp act and the right of Parliament to tax them. 
They resolved that his Majesty's subjects in the colonies 
owe the same allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain 
that is due from his subjects born there. That his 
Majesty- 's liege subjects of the colonies are entitled to all 
the inherent rights and liberties of his natural-born sub- 
jects within the Kingdom of Great Britain. That it is 
inseparably essential to the freedom of a people and the 
undoubted right of Englishmen there, that no taxes be 

1 Hist, of the U. S. (Bancroft), last ed., 149, 154. 

2 Ibid., ed. of 1857, vol. V, chap. XIV, 294. Strange to say, this pas- 
sage is omitted in later editions of Mr. Bancroft's History. 

VOL. n — 2p 



578 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

imposed on them, but with their own consent. That the 
people of the provinces are not, and from their local cir- 
cumstances cannot be, rej)resented in the House of Com- 
mons in Great Britain. That the only representatives of 
the people of the provinces are persons chosen therein by 
themselves, and that no taxes ever have been or can be 
constitutionally imposed on them but by the legislatures 
of the provinces. That supplies to the Crown being free 
gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with 
the principles and spirit of the British constitution for 
the people of Great Britain to grant to his Majesty the 
property of the people of the provinces, etc. The Con- 
gress upon these declarations presented a petition to the 
King and a memorial to the House of Lords and another 
to the House of Commons. 

Gadsden hurried off from New York that he might 
arrive in time to meet the Assembly and report the pro- 
ceedings of the Congress, but he had a long passage, and 
the Assembly had adjourned before his arrival. The 
Assembly met again, however, on the 26th of November, 
and received the report of its delegates. It approved and 
confirmed the action of the Congress and its delegates, 
and adopted the whole set of resolutions of the Congress, 
merely changing the phraseology where necessary so as to 
make them the specific act of the Assembly of South Caro- 
lina, and adding one or two upon facts and considerations 
peculiar to this province. 

The action of the Assembly of South Carolina was taken 
by a vote which wanted but one of being unanimous, and 
that was the vote of William Wragg, who never flinched on 
any occasion from boldly asserting his loyalty to the King 
and his support of the government in England. Peter 
Manigault, the Speaker, was directed to sign the petition 
and memorial, and the committee of correspondence was 



tJI^DEK THE KOVAL GOVERNMENT 579 

ordered to transmit the same to the provincial agent in 
Enghmd, directing him to use his utmost endeavors to 
obtain a favorable consideration of them. The Speaker 
signed and dispatched the memorials by a ship which sailed 
the morning after. ^ 

The Grenville ministry had fallen in July, 1765, and 
had been succeeded by Rockingham, and Conway, who 
had been one of the few opponents of the Stamp act, was 
now Secretary of State for the colonies. Up to this time 
the truth was, that however much our forefathers may 
liave thought the affairs of the world were all turning 
upon their actings and doings, colonial affairs had scarcely 
received any attention in the English political world. 
The Regency bill, the Cider bill, Wilkes, and the ille- 
gality of general warrants, the growing power of the House 
of Bourbon, were the questions, among others, which were 
engrossing the attention of Englishmen. The colonies 
had been neglected and overlooked. When Grenville 
moved his resolutions to impose the stamp tax on the 
colonies, Colonel Barr^ was almost the only man to 
oppose them, and it has been questioned whether at the 
time he uttered the eloquent invective which became 
household words in New England.^ "Mr. Grenville lost 

1 See "Votes of the Commons' House." So. Ca. Gazette, May 7, 1776. 

2 Colonel Barry's alleged invective is directed chiefly against an obser- 
vation of Mr. Grenville, that the Americans were "children planted by 
our care and nourished by our indulgence." " Children planted by your 
care," Colonel Barr6 is said to have replied. "No! your oppression 
planted them in America ; they fled from your tyranny into a then 
uncultivated land where they were exposed to almost all hardships to 
which human nature is liable, and yet, actuated by principles of true 
English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure compared 
to tliose they suffered in their own country fi-om the hands of those who 
should have been their friends. They nourished by your indulgence ? 
They grew out of your neglect of them ; as soon as you began to care 
about them, that care was exercised iu sending persons to rule over them 



580 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

America because he read the American dispatches, which 
none of his predecessors ever did," was the contemptuous 
remark of one of the under secretaries. The business of 
the colonies, to use Mr. Burke's words, was treated "with 
salutary neglect." The act attracted so little attention 
that it was only in the last days of 1765 or the first of 
1766 that the new ministry learned the views of Mr. Pitt 
upon the subject. It was probably a complete surprise to 

who were, perhaps, the deputies of some deputy, sent to spy out their 
liberty, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ; men whose 
behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty 
to recoil within them. They protected by your arms ? They have nobly 
taken up arms in your defence, have exerted their valor amidst their 
constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose 
frontiers while drenched in blood, its interior parts have yielded all its 
little savings to your enlargement ; and the same spirit which actuated 
that people at first will continue with them still, but providence forbids 
me to explain myself further." 

Adolphus, the historian, suggests a doubt as to the authenticity of the 
report of this speech. It is not found in De Brett's Parliamentary Collec- 
tion. — Adolphus's Hist, of England, vol. I, 167. In his speech on 
American Taxation, Burke says : "I sat a stranger in yoiar gallery when 
the act was under consideration. Far from anything inflammatory, / 
never heard a more languid debate.'''' — Burke's Works, vol. I, 559. Horace 
Walpole says, "When Grenville moved the resolutions Colonel Barr6 
was the fir.st and almost single man to oppose them, treating severely 
Charles Townshend, who supported them." His editor, commenting on 
the doubt, observes, "There is nothing in Colonel Barry's character to 
make it improbable that he may have been his own reporter, and not a 
very faithful one." — Walpole's Memoirs of George III, vol. II, 7, 8, and 
note. The speech is, however, incorporated in the text of Parliamentary 
History, vol. XVI, 38, but a note is added, giving the above quotation 
fi'om Burke. Lecky accepts it as genuine though, he says, not reported 
in the contemporary parliamentary history. He attributes the report of 
the speech to the agent of Connecticut, who had been present in the 
gallery and transmitted the speech to America. — England in the Eigh- 
teenth Century, vol. Ill, 352. Lord Mahon holds it probable that this 
speech, under the name of revision and on a slight foundation of reality, 
was added by the pen of Barre. — Hist, of England (Mahon), vol. V, 131. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 581 

them to learn that it had brought the colonies to the verge 
of rebellion, and in the tirst months they appear to have 
been quite uncertain what policy to pursue. The ministers 
would gladly have left the question of American taxation 
undecided, but that was no longer possible. 

Parliament had almost unanimously asserted its right, 
and the colonial assemblies had defiantly denied it. There 
was one powerful weapon in the hands of the colonies, 
and that was the debts they owed merchants in England. 
These debts involved the merchants of London, Liverpool, 
and Manchester, and other great trading towns in common 
cause with the Americans, and the question thus became 
one of local politics there. Petitions were presented from 
the traders of London, Liverpool, and other towns, stating 
that the colonists were indebted to the amount of several 
millions sterling for English goods which had been ex- 
ported to America; that the colonists had hitherto faith- 
fully made good their engagements, but they now declared 
their inability to do so; that they would neither give 
orders for new goods nor pay for those which they had 
actually received; and that unless Parliament speedily re- 
traced its steps, multitudes of English manufactures would 
be reduced to bankruptcy. 

Parliament met on December 17, 1765, and the attitude 
of the different parties was speedily disclosed. Mr. Lecky 
thus fairly sums up their different positions. 

A powerful opposition, led by Grenville and Bedford, 
strenuously urged that no relaxation or indulgence should 
be granted to the colonists. In two successive sessions 
the polic}' of taxing A raerica had been deliberately affirmed, 
and if Parliament now suffered itself to be defied or in- 
timidated, its authority would be forever at an end. Tlie 
method of reasoning by which the Americans maintained 
that they could not be taxed by Parliament, in which they 



582 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

were not represented, might be applied with equal plausi- 
bility to the Navigation acts and to every other branch of 
imperial legislation for the colonies, and it led directly to 
the disintegration of the empire. The supreme authority 
of Parliament chiefly held the different parts of the empire 
together. The right of taxation was an essential part of 
the sovereign power. The colonial constitutions were 
created by Royal charter, and it could not be admitted that 
the King, while retaining his own sovereignty over cer- 
tain portions of his dominions, could by a mere exercise 
of prerogative withdraw them wholly or in part from the 
authority of the British Parliament. It was the right and 
duty of the imperial legislation to determine what propor- 
tion the different parts of the empire should contribute to 
the defence of the wliole, and to see that no one part evaded 
its obligations and unjustly transferred its share to others. 
The disputed right of taxation was established by a long 
series of legal authorities, and there was no real distinc- 
tion between internal and external taxation. It suited 
the Americans to describe themselves as the apostles of 
liberty and to denounce England as an oppressor. It was 
simple truth that England governed her colonies more 
liberally than any other country in the world. They were 
the only existing colonies which enjoyed real political 
liberty. Their commercial system was more liberal than 
that of any other colonies. They had attained under 
British rule a degree of prosperity which was surpassed 
in no quarter of the globe. England had loaded herself 
with debt in order to remove the one great danger to their 
future. She cheerfully bore the whole burden of their 
protection by sea. Lord Mansfield maintained that there 
could be no doubt but that the inhabitants of the colonies 
were as well represented in Parliament as the greatest 
part of the people of England, among the nine millions of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 583 

whom there were eight who had no votes in electing mem- 
bers of Parliament. Every objection, therefore, to the 
dependency of the colonies upon Parliament, he urged, 
went to the whole present constitution of Great Britain. 
People might form their own speculative ideas of perfec- 
tion and indulge their own fancies or those of other men. 
Every man in the country had his particular notions of 
liberty; but perfection never did and never could exist in 
any human institution. For what purpose, then, were 
arguments drawn from a distinction in which there was 
no real difference, of a virtual and actual representation? 
Pitt, on the other hand, rose from his sick-bed, and in 
speeches of extraordinary eloquence, which produced an 
amazing effect on both sides of the Atlantic, justified the 
resistance of the colonies. He maintained in the strongest 
terms that the doctrine of self-taxation is the essential and 
discriminating circumstance of political freedom. " It is 
my opinion," he said, "that this Kingdom has no right to 
lay a tax upon the colonies." But he was careful to ^dd 
with emphasis, and in doing so expressed the views of all 
the leaders in South Carolina, "At the same time I assert 
the authority of the Kingdom over the colonies to be 
sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of govern- 
ment and legislation whatsoever." Then he went on to 
argue: "Taxation is no part of the governing or legisla- 
tive power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of 
the Commons alone. . . . The distinction between legis- 
lation and taxation is necessary to liberty. . . . The 
Commons of America represented in their several assem- 
blies have ever been in possession of the exercise of this 
their constitutional rio^ht of efivingf and ofrantingf their own 
money. They would have been slaves if they had not 
enjo3'^ed it." In his reply to Grenville he reiterated these 
principles in still stronger terms. "I rejoice," he said. 



584 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

"that America has resisted. Three millions of people so 
dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit 
to be slaves would have been fit instruments to have made 
slaves of the rest! " ^ 

These views were defended in the strongest terms by 
no less a lawyer than Lord Camden, who pledged his great 
legal reputation to the doctrine that taxation is not in- 
cluded under the general riglit of legislation, and that 
taxation and representation are morally inseparable. ^ 

The Stamp act was repealed, but with its repeal another 
act was passed which in principle was more hostile to the 
assertion of the right claimed by the Americans than the 
Stamp act itself. This was called the "Declaratory act." 
Its very title was a direct traverse and denial of the claim 
of the colonies. It was entitled " An act for the better 
securing the dependency of his Majesty''s dominions in 
America upon the Crown and Parliament of G-reat B?'itain,^' 
and it provided "that all resolutions, votes, orders, and 
proceedings in any of the said colonies or plantations, 
whereby the power and authority of the Parliament of 
Great Britain to make laws is denied or drawn in ques- 
tion, are and are hereby declared to be utterly null and 
void to all intents and purposes whatsoever." 

There could have been no general desire or settled 
purpose on the part of the people of South Carolina to 
quarrel with the mother country if this act was satisfac- 
tory; for it was in direct opposition to the resolutions of 
the Congress at New York, which the Commons' House 
had just endorsed and adopted. The truth is, the heart 
of the people was not as yet much in the controversy. 
The Governor's Council, composed of members of the most 
influential families in the colony, was entirely ojjposed to 

^ England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 363, 367. 
^ Lives of the Lords Chancellors (Campbell), vol. V, 253-255. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 585 

the action of the Commons' House; and William Wragg, 
in his sturdy resistance in that body, had, as it will be 
seen, the support of his constituents and of many others 
in tlie province. 

Nothing, says Mr. Sabine, is clearer than that the 
British Navigation act and the Laws of Trade, which 
were a part of the system it was meant to enforce, con- 
tained the germs of the Revolution. The Stamp act and 
other statutes of a kindred nature have been made, he 
thinks, to occupy too prominent a place among the causes 
assigned for that event. The irritation which the duties 
on stamps excited in the planting colonies subsided as 
soon as the law which imposed them was repealed; and 
but for the policy which oppressed the commerce and in- 
hibited the use of the Avaterfalls of New England, the "dis- 
pute " between the mother country and her children would 
have been "left," as Washington breathed a wish that it 
might be, " to posterity to determine." In this Mr. Sabine 
is no doubt correct. The southern colonies, and South 
Carolina in particular, had no longer any practical cause 
of complaint. She was suffering from no material oppres- 
sion. What part she took thereafter was in the interest 
of the commerce and waterfalls of Ncav England, and not 
in her own. She, at least, was to contend only for abstract 
right and abstract liberty. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

1766-68 

The news of the repeal of the Stamp act was received 
in Charlestown May 6, 1766, and its reception was cele- 
brated by bonfires, illuminations, ringing of bells, and 
other demonstrations of joy.^ On the 13th the Commons' 
House requested Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, 
and John Rutledge to sit for their pictures, which were 
to be drawn at full length and preserved in the assembly 
room as a testimony of public regard, that the remem- 
brance of the signal service they had done their country as 
a committee of the province at tlie Congress at New York 
might be transmitted to and remembered by posterity. ^ 
The House also, upon the motion of Rawlins Lowndes, 
voted to have a statue made in England of the Right 
Honorable William Pitt, to be erected in the State House 
as a memorial of the respect for his upright and disin- 
terested conduct upon all occasions, and particularly his 
assistance in procuring a repeal of the Stamp act, which 
they declared was equally beneficial to Great Britain and 
the colonies.^ But William Wragg would not allow the 
opportunity to pass without putting in a word for his 
sovereign ; he moved to amend the resolution b}' inserting 
the name of his Majesty George the Third in the })lace of 
that of his Honor William Pitt. He could not obtain a 

1 Drayton's Memoirs, vol. I, 59. 

2 So. Ca. Gazette, June 9, 1766. 

® So. Ca. Gazette and Country Journal, May 13, 1766. 
586 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 587 

second to his motion. An address to his most gracious 
Majesty was, however, ordered to be prepared and sent 
upon this occasion, and his birthday happening a few days 
afterward the people turned out to show tliat the con- 
troversy had not lessened their loyalty. The morning of 
the 4th of June, the King's birthday, was usliered in 
with the ringing of bells and the display of colors. At 
noon the great guns were fired and answered by volleys of 
the Charlestown militia. The artillery and light infantry 
companies were drawn up on Broad Street, and we are 
told made a fine appearance. They were reviewed by his 
honor the Lieutenant (Tovernor, Avho gave on the joyful 
occasion a very elegant entertainment at Mr. Dillon's 
tavern to his Majesty's Council and the Speaker and mem- 
bers of the Assembly, the officers, civil and military, and 
the clerg3^ So the Lieutenant Governor, the Chief Jus- 
tice, and the Associate Justices, and Dougal Campbell, 
the Clerk, and Captain Gadsden of the artillery, together 
Avith his colleagues, Lynch and Rutledge, and Peter 
Manigault, the Speaker, washed down with Govei-nor 
Bull's wine all personal animosities, and the Gazette 
informs us the evening concluded with illuminations and 
other demonstrations of joy and gratitude for the many 
blessings enjoyed under his Majesty's most auspicious 
reign. Mr. Pitt and all the friends of Great Britain and 
the colonies were duly remembered. 

Two weeks after, on the 17th of June, the successor to 
Governor Boone, his Excellency Lord Charles Greville 
Montagu, Governor-in-chief, and the lady to whom he had 
been but recently married, arrived in the ship Fonthill 
from Cowes.^ His Excellency's arrival was made another 

^ So. Ca. Gazette and Country Journal, June 13, 17G6. Lord Cliarles 
Greville Montagu was the second son of Robert, the third Duke of Man- 
chester ; he was born in 1741, and was consequently but twenty-four years 



588 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

occasion of demonstration of the loj^alt}^ of the people of 
tlie province. Tlie morning of his disembarkment was 
ushered in, as the King's birthday had been just before, 
with the ringing of bells and the display of colors. The 
militia were again drawn up on Broad Street, forming two 
lines, between which his Lordship, who was received at the 
landing by two members of his Majesty's Council, walked 
to the State House. At the State House his Excellency 
was received by another deputation of his Majesty's 
Council and conducted into the Council Chamber, where 
his Honor the Lieutenant Governor received and read 
his Majesty's commission. His Excellency, attended 
as before and accompanied by his Honor the Lieutenant 
Governor, walked to Granville's Bastion, where the artil- 
lery, commanded by Captain Gadsden, was posted. His 
Majesty's commission was again read and publislied, upon 
which a general discharge of cannon was answered by 
volleys of small arms. His Excellency returned to the 
State House, preceded by the liglit infantry, Captain 
Thomas Savage, of whom and of the artillery his Lordship 
expressed his approbation in the genteelest terms. His 
Excellency, with his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, 
members of his Majesty's Council, the Speaker of the 
House, officers, civil and military, and the clergy, about 
two o'clock met at Mr. Dillon's, where an elegant enter- 
tainment was again provided, and where his Excellency 
passed the afternoon, it was said, with much satisfaction. 
The inhabitants of James Island, opposite the town, 
illuminated their residences in demonstration of joy at 
the safe arrival of his Lordship; and the Charlestown 
Library Society, the South Carolina Society, the principal 

of age upon liis appointment as Governor of South Carolina. As a 
younger son of a duke he bore the courtesy title of Lord with his Chris- 
tian and surname. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 589 

merchants, the clergy of the Church of England, and the 
Presbytery of the province, all hastened to present his 
Lordship with addresses of congratulation and loyalty. 

The people of South Carolina were generally satisfied, 
and were earnest in their allegiance to the mother country. 
There were some, however, among those who were uniting 
in doing honor to the newly arrived Governor who were 
not content with the action of Parliament, and who fully 
appreciated the significance of the Declaratory act, and 
chief of these was Christopher Gadsden. He was still for 
decisive and energetic measures. He thought it folly to 
temporize, and insisted that cordial reconciliation was im- 
possible under these terms ; and while the community was 
in ecstasy at the repeal of the Stamp act, he received it, 
with its accompanying declaration, with indignation. 
His followers were mostly among the artisans and me- 
chanics of the town, and chief among these was William 
Johnson, a blacksmith. 

We have it on the authority of John Rutledge that 
William Johnson was the man who first moved the ball 
of revolution in Charlestown. He was an upright, in- 
fluential, and intelligent mechanic, a man of considerable 
inherited means, who had not long since come into this 
province from New York.^ At his instance two or three 
individuals assembled with him under an oak tree- in 
Hampstead, or Mazyckboro', then a suburb of the town, 
and discussed the aggressions of the mother country. This 
oak became famous afterward as the "Liberty Tree." It 
stood in the centre of the square known as Mazyckboro', 

1 Johnson's Traditions. William Johnson was a member of every 
legislature and committee from the first of the Revolution to the year 
1792, excepting only the Jacksonboro' legislature, in 1782, which took 
place before he had returned from exile in Philadelphia, whither he had 
been sent with the other exiles from St. Augustine, where they had been 
held by the British from Auj^ust, 1780, to July, 1781. 



590 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

now bounded by Charlotte, Washington, Calhoun, and 
Alexander streets. It was a place of social and political 
gatherings, and, as we shall see, much was done under its 
branches to further the cause of American independence. 
It became the place of the meetings of the Non-importation 
Association, and under its shade the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was proclaimed with the most imposing cere- 
monies. When Charlestown was surrendered to Sir Henry 
Clinton, the tree was still in its original beauty. But its 
name and associations rendered it an object of aversion 
to the British authorities. It was not only cut down by 
them, but a fire was made under the still upright trunk 
by piling its branches around it, that the destruction 
might be complete. The low black stump was alone visible 
when the city was evacuated and the Revolution at an end. 
In the course of time others were added to the original 
number of those who met with William Johnson under 
this tree, and upon one occasion, in the fall of 1766, 
Christopher Gadsden addressed them at considerable length 
on the folly of relaxing their opposition and vigilance, or 
of indulging the fallacious hope that Great Britain would 
relinquish her designs or pretensions. He then drew their 
attention to the preamble of the act, forcibly pressed upon 
them the folly of rejoicing at an act that still asserted and 
maintained the absolute dominion of Great Britain over 
them; and then, reviewing all the chances of succeeding 
in a struggle to break the fetters, whenever again imposed 
upon them, he pressed them to prepare their minds for the 
event. The address was received with silent and profound 
attention, and with linked hands the whole party pledged 
themselves to resist — a pledge which was fully redeemed 
when the hour of trial arrived. ^ 

1 A list of the persons present on this occasion : Christopher Gadsden, 
William Johnson, Joseph Verree, John Fullerton, James Brown, Na- 



UNDER THP: royal GOVERNMENT 591 

Another question arose at this time, which ended in the 
suspension of the legishitive functions of the colony of 
New York. A clause in the Mutiny act of Great Britain 
required the colonists to supply the English troops with 
some necessaries of life, and this provision was now 
attempted to be enforced. Boston, as usual, disputed it 
at every point, and New York positively refused to obey. 
Dickinson of Pennsylvania, in his celebrated essays. The 
Farmer''s Letters, maintained that if the British legisla- 
ture had the right to order the colonies to provide a single 
article for British troops, it had the right to tax. " An 
act of Parliament commanding to do a certain thing," he 
argued, " is a tax upon us for the expense that accrues in 
compljnng with it." The news that New York had openly 
repudiated an act of Parliament by refusing to furnish 
troops with the necessaries of life produced a sensation 
in the colonies and indignation in Parliament, in which 
Chatham himself fully shared. "America," he wrote 
confidentially to Shelburne, "affords a gloomy prospect. 
A spirit of infatuation has taken possession of New York. 
Their disobedience to the Mutiny act will justly create 
a great ferment, open a fair field to the arraigners of 
America, and leave no room to any to say a word in their 
defence." Parliament passed an act suspending the leg- 
islative functions of the New York Assembly, and the 
Governor was forbidden to give his sanction to any local 
law in the province until the terms of the Mutiny act 
had been com[»lied with. The increasing importance of 
American affairs occasioned the nomination of a third 

thaiiiel Lihby, George Flagg, Thomas Coleman, John Hall, William Field, 
John Lawton, Uz. Rogers, John Calvert, Henry Bookless, J. Barlow, 
Tunis Tebout, Peter Munclear, William Trusler, Robert Howard, Alex- 
ander Alexander, Edward Weyman, Thomas Searl, William Laughton, 
Daniel Cannon, Benjamin Hawes. Johnson's Traditions, 31-34. 



692 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Secretary of State in Great Britain about this time, whose 
department had a special reference to the colonies, and the 
Earl of Hillsborough was appointed to the new portfolio. 
Parliament was not slow to make good its assertion of 
right in the Declaratory act. The very next year, 1767, 
an act was passed to put the customs and other duties in 
the colonies, and the execution of laws there relating to 
trade, under the management of commissioners to be ap- 
pointed for the purpose and to be resident therein ; also 
another act for more effectually preventing the clandestine 
running of goods in the colonies and plantations, and for 
granting duties in the colonies upon glass, red lead, white 
lead, painter's colors, paper, pasteboards, millboards, scale 
boards, and tea imported into them. These acts produced 
new discontents and commotions. Kesolutions, petitions, 
memorials, and addresses against them followed; and asso- 
ciations for suspending further importations from British 
manufactures, until these obnoxious duties were removed, 
were again entered into at Boston and other places. But 
for the time they do not seem to have disturbed the people 
of South Carolina. The troubles in the upper part of the 
province arisiug from the inefficiency of the government 
to preserve order and protect property continued. But in 
the low country there was peace and plenty. The harbor 
of Charlestown was crowded with shipping. Hundreds of 
vessels lay at her wharves and rode at anchor before the 
town. Rice was being shipped all over the world. No 
wonder the people on the coast were generally in a good 
humor with the mother country and the government. 
They elected Lord Charles Greville Montagu, the Gov- 
ernor, President of the Library Society, and enjoyed them- 
selves listening to the singing of the peace song, and 
witnessing the dancing of the eagle tail dance by Occo- 
nostota, or the great warrior AttakullakuUa, or Little 



UNDER THE HOYAL GOVERNMENT 593 

Carpenter, the Prince of Chote, Tiftoe of Keowee, and the 
Raven of Toogaloo — all principal Cherokee headmen and 
chiefs, who had come with Alexander Cameron, the com- 
missary of that nation, to pay their respects to his Excel- 
lency, and had been allowed an audience by the Governor. 
They had been received b}^ the detachment of the Royal 
American regiment stationed at Charlestown, and the 
artillery and light infantry, with whose appearance the 
Gazette announced that the dusky warriors were greatly 
pleased. 1 There was racing, too, at Strawberry, in St. 
John's, Berkeley, in January, 1768, Mr. James Ravenel's 
filly beating Captain Harleston's, Mr. John Harleston's, 
and Mr. Paul Mazyck's colts ; and Mr. Horry's filly run- 
ning against Mr. Daniel Ravenel's. So, too, at the New 
Market Course, near Charlestown, William Henry Dray- 
ton, William Cattell, Samuel Elliot, Edward Fenwick, 
James Ravenel, Benjamin Elliot, and Thomas Nightingale 
all entered horses. On February 10, the brigantine Lord 
Dungamore brought in 120, and Snow Billy Greg 150, more 
passengers from the north of Ireland, most of these, no 
doubt, destined to join their friends and kinsmen in the 
upper country. Then on the 23d of May his Excellency 
the Governor embarks with his lady for a trip to Phila- 
delphia, leaving the administration upon Carolina's favor- 
ite son, the Lieutenant Governor, to the great satisfaction 
of all the people. 

When the Assembly met in November, his Excellency, 
who had returned from his trip to the North, called atten- 
tion to the unhappy situation of affairs in the back country. 
The trouble arose from the inability of the government on 
the coast to afford protection and to administer justice in 
the newly settled up country ; and this inability was chiefly 
owing to the shameful abuse of the ofiice of Provost Marshal 
1 So. Ca. Gazette, November 17, 1767. 

VOL. II — 2 <J 



594 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

or High Sheriff of the province, and of the influence it 
exercised in Enghmd in preventing the establishment of 
courts in that section, of which we shall have occasion 
directly to speak more fully. For the present it is enough 
to say that in the absence of courts of justice within their 
reach the inhabitants of this section found it necessary to 
form an association, which was called Regulation, and the 
persons composing it Regulators. Against these the horse 
thieves, their associates, and other criminals made com- 
mon cause, and received some support from persons who 
objected to the irregularity of the Regulators. 

Most of the inhabitants favored one or other of these 
parties. The one justified the proceedings of the Regu- 
lators on the score of necessity, and substantial though 
irregular justice; the other pretended to be jealous, as 
British subjects, of their right to a legal trial by a court 
and jury. As Dr. Ramsay, the historian, says, though the 
former meant well, yet justice is of so delicate a nature 
that form as well as substance must be regarded. It is 
therefore probable that in some cases the proceedings of 
the Regulators may have so far partaken of the infirmities 
of human nature as to furnish real grounds of complaint 
against them. Their adversaries made such high-colored 
representations that the Governor adopted measures for 
their suppression, in which he was alike as unfortunate in 
the measures themselves as in the person to whom he 
intrusted them. He conferred a high commission to sup- 
press these disorders on a man whose name was variously 
written, Scovil or Schovel or Schofield, one whose conduct, 
character, and standing in society had rendered him unfit 
for the position, had the Governor the right to give any 
one such a commission. The conduct of this man added 
greatly to the difficnlties of the situation and exasperated 
the people. An appeal was made to the Governor, who 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 595 

sided with the Scovilites, his creatures. In a speech to 
the Assembl}', calling attention to these troubles, his Ex- 
cellency said that tumultuous risings of any people, if 
not attended to, are of a dangerous tendency; they are 
a disgrace to a country, and particularly pernicious to a 
commercial and newly settled colony ; he desired the 
Assembly to take means to suppress the licentious spirits 
that had assumed the name of Regulators, and in defiance 
of government and in subversion of order had illegally 
tried, condemned, and punished many persons. 

This was an instance of the conduct of the government, 
which was quietly sapping its authority and influence in 
the province of South Carolina far more than by its impo- 
sition of taxes, which the people did not feel, and which 
was a prospective and contingent evil rather than an actual 
grievance. This was an actual and pressing wrong. To 
preserve the emoluments of the office of High Sheriff to a 
favorite at the Board in England, courts were denied the 
inhabitants of the remote parts of the province ; and when 
the people, driven by necessity, took the law into their 
own hands, they had the Royal Governor prating to them 
of the beauties and excellence of a well-ordered society, 
and treating as criminals many who were only trying to 
preserve some order and peace for themselves and their 
families. 

The disturbances continued while the Assembly was 
deliberating on the remedy. One John Bowles attempted 
to take the life of Thomas Woodward, the leader of the 
Regulators, and was himself killed. 



CHAPTER XXX 

1768 

On the 11th of February, 1768, the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives addressed a circular letter to the several 
assemblies of the provinces, stating that they had taken 
into serious consideration the great difficulties that must 
accrue to themselves and their constituents by the opera- 
tion of the several acts of Parliament imposing duties and 
taxes on the American colonies; that as this was a subject 
in which every colony was deeply interested, they had no 
reason to doubt but that each Assembly was deeply im- 
pressed with its importance ; and that such constitutional 
measures would be adopted as were proper; that it Avas 
necessary that all possible care should be taken that the 
several assemblies upon so delicate a matter should har- 
monize with each other. They hoped, therefore, that their 
letter would be considered in no other light than as ex- 
pressing a disposition freely to communicate their minds 
to sister colonies upon a common concern. 

Tlie letter went on to say that the House of Represen- 
tatives of Massachusetts had humbly represented to the 
Ministry that his Majesty's High Court of Parliament 
was the supreme legislative power over the whole empire; 
that in all free States the constitution is fixed, and as the 
supreme legislation derives its power and authority from 
the constitution, it could not overleap the bounds of it 
without destroying its own foundation ; that the constitu- 
tion ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance, 
and therefore his Majesty's subjects, who acknowledged 

596 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 597 

themselves bound by ties of allegiance, had an equitable 
claim to the full enjoyment of the fundamental rules of 
the British constitution; that it was an essential unalter- 
able right in nature, engrafted on the British constitution 
as a fundamental law ever held sacred and irrevocable by 
the subjects within the realm, that what a man hath 
honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may 
freely give, but which cannot be taken from him w^ithout 
his consent; that the American subjects might therefore, 
exclusive of any consideration of charter rights, with a 
discreet firmness adapted to the character of freemen and 
subjects, assert their natural constitutional right. That 
it was, moreover, their humble opinion that acts made by 
Parliament, imposing duties on the people of the provinces 
with the sole express purpose of raising a revenue, were 
infringements of their constitutional rights, because they 
were not represented in the Parliament, his Majesty's 
Commons in Britain by their acts granting their property 
without their consent. 

That they were further of opinion that their constitu- 
ents, considering their local circumstances, could not 
possibly be represented in the Parliament, and that it was 
impracticable that they should be, separated as they were 
by an ocean of a thousand leagues; that his Majesty's 
Royal predecessors for this reason were graciously pleased 
to form a subordinate legislature here, that their sub- 
jects might enjoy the inalienable right of representation. 
That considering the utter impracticability of being fully 
and equally represented in Parliament, and the great ex- 
pense that would unavoidably attend even a partial rep- 
resentation there, the House thought the taxation of their 
constituents, even without their consent, grievous as it 
was, would be preferable to any representation that could 
be admitted for them. 



598 HISTORY OF SOUTH GAKOLINA 

Upon these principles, and also considering that were 
the right in Parliament clear, yet for obvious reasons it 
would be beyond the rules of equity that their constituents 
should be taxed on the manufactures of Great Britain here 
in addition to their duties paid for them in England, and 
other advantages arising to Great Britain from the acts of 
trade, the House had preferred a humble, dutiful, and 
loyal petition to their most gracious sovereign, and made 
such representations to his Majesty's ministers as they 
apprehended would obtain redress. 

The letter declared that these were the sentiments and 
proceedings of the House, and as they had too much reason 
to believe that the enemies of the colonies had represented 
them to his Majesty's ministers in Parliament as factious 
and disloyal and having a disposition to make themselves 
independent of the mother country, they had taken occa- 
sion in the most humble terms to assure his Majesty and 
his ministers that with regard to the people of that prov- 
ince, and, as they had no doubt, of all the colonies, the 
charge was false. 

This circular letter of the Massachusetts House was 
received and read in the House of Burgesses of Virginia 
on the 2d of April ; and on the 7th resolutions reaffirming 
the exclusive right of the American assemblies to tax the 
American colonies were unanimously adopted, and soon 
after the Burgesses directed their Speaker to write to all 
the assemblies on the Continent to make known their pro- 
ceedings and to intimate how necessary they thought it 
that the colonies should unite in a firm but decent opposi- 
tion to every measure which might affect their rights and 
liberties. 

In pursuance of this direction, on the 9th of May, Mr. 
Peyton Randolpli, the Speaker, addressed a letter to Mr. 
Peter Manigault, the Speaker of the Commons' House of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 599 

South Carolina, in which, stating that the House of Bur- 
gesses of Virginia, having attentively considered the sev- 
eral acts of the British Parliament relating to the revenue, 
and being of opinion that they manifestly tended to deprive 
the inhabitants of the colonies of their essential rights and 
privileges, had thought it their duty as the representative 
of a free people to take every regular step to assert that 
constitutional liberty on the destruction of which these 
laws seemed to be erected. 

They had thought it proper, Mr. Randolph said, to rep- 
resent that they were sensible of the happiness and security 
they derived from their connection with and dependence 
upon Great Britain, and were under the greatest concern 
that any unlucky incident should interrupt that salutary 
harmony which they wished ever to subsist. They lamented 
that the remoteness of their situation often exposed them 
to fresh misrepresentation, apt to involve them in censures 
of disloyalty to their sovereign and the want of proper 
respect to the British Parliament, whereas they had in- 
dulged themselves in the agreeable persuasion that they 
ought to be considered as inferior to none of their fellow- 
subjects in loyalty and affection. 

They did not desire, Mr. Randolph declared, an inde- 
pendence of the parent kingdom, but cheerfully acquiesced 
in tlie authority of Parliament to make laws for preserving 
a necessary dependence and for regulating the trade of the 
colonies ; yet they could not conceive that it was essential 
to the support of a proper relation between the mother 
country and the colonies that she should have the right to 
raise money from them without their consent. Mr. Ran- 
dolph went on then to argue the questions involved, with 
great clearness and ability, and concluded that the House 
of Burgesses he represented was not without hopes that 
by a hearty union of the colonies the constitution might 



600 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

again be established in its genuine principles — an end 
equally to be desired both by the mother country and her 
colonies. 

These circular letters of Massachusetts and Virginia 
certainly breathed no spirit of rebellion. That of Massa- 
chusetts charged that it was the enemies of the colonies 
who represented to his Majesty that the people of that 
colony had a disposition to make themselves injlependent 
of the mother country; and that of Virginia declared that 
her people did not desire an independence of the motlier 
kingdom. These express declarations were no doubt 
necessary, at least in South Carolina, to obtain a coopera- 
tion with those colonies ; for the people of South Carolina 
generally were still devoted in their love to the mother 
country, and at heart loyal to its government. But when 
the news of the circular letter of Massachusetts reached 
the ministers in England, on the 15th of April, 1768, it 
was declared to be an incentive to rebellion ; and in order 
to insulate the offending province a letter was sent by the 
Earl of Hillsborough, the Secretary for the colonies, to the , 
Governors of the twelve other colonies, with a copy of 
the circular, which was described as " of a most dangerous 
and factious tendency," calculated "to inflame the minds " 
of the people, "to promote an unwarrantable combination, 
and to incite to open opposition to the authority of Parlia- 
ment," and each was directed to exert his utmost influence 
to prevail upon the Assembly of his province to take no 
notice of it. " If they give any countenance to this sedi- 
tious paper," wrote Hillsborough, "it will be your duty 
to prevent any proceedings upon it by an immediate pro- 
rogation or dissolution." To Governor Bernard of Massa- 
chusetts he wrote: "You will therefore require the House 
of Representatives in his Majesty's name to rescind the 
resolution which gave birth to the circular letter fiom the 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 601 

Speaker, and to declare their disapprobation of that rash 
and hasty proceeding." 

The letter of the Earl of Hillsborough reached Governor 
Bernard at a time when Boston was greatly excited over 
the seizure of John Hancock's sloop Liberty. Boston had 
risen to wealth and importance in a great measure by car- 
rying on trade to the West Indies and the Spanish colonies 
in South America; and this trade, though forbidden by 
the strict letter of the Navigation act, had nevertheless 
been permitted, or at least overlooked : it was the means 
of introducing specie and bullion into the American colo- 
nies, and enabling the colonists thereby to make remit- 
tances of money to England in discharge of their debts. 
But the new commissioners of customs, anxious to evince 
the utility of their appointments, kept vigilant eyes upon 
the Boston trade, and particularly upon the vessels which 
were owned in that port. In this they were encouraged 
by the arrival in Boston of two British regiments, escorted 
by seven sloops of war, which had been sent to strengthen 
the government. The sloop Liberty., belonging to John 
Hancock, a leading merchant, arrived in June, 1768, laden 
with wines from Madeira, whereupon a custom-house officer 
went on board to inspect the cargo. He was seized by the 
crew and detained for several hours, while the cargo was 
landed, and a few pipes of wine were entered on oath, as 
if they had been the whole. On the liberation of the offi- 
cers the vessel was seized for a false entry, and in order 
to prevent the possibility of a rescue, it was removed from 
tlie wharf under the guns of a man-of-war. A great riot 
followed, and the custom-house officers were obliged to fly 
to a ship of war, and afterward to the barracks, for pro- 
tection. ^ 

^ England in the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. Ill, 390 ; Drayton's 
Memoirs, vol. I, 62. 



602 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The Assembly was in session, and on Tuesday, the 21st 
of June, Governor Bernard sent in a message communi- 
cating to the Assembly the demand of Hillsborough that 
the resolution authorizing the circular letter should be 
rescinded. Replies of sympathy had been by this time 
received from Connecticut and New Jersey ; but the letter 
from Virginia gave the Assembly of Massachusetts more 
courage than all the rest. The House, says Bancroft, 
employing the pen of Samuel Adams, without altering a 
word, reported a letter to Lord Hillsborough, in which 
they showed that the circular letter of February was indeed 
the declared sense of a large majority of their body, and 
expressed their reliance on the clemency of the King; that 
to petition him would not be deemed inconsistent with 
respect for the British constitution, nor to acquaint their 
fellow-subjects of their having done so be discountenanced 
as an inflammatory proceeding. 

Then came the great question, taken, it is said, in the 
fullest House ever remembered. The votes were given by 
word of mouth, and against seventeen that were willing 
to yield, ninety-two refused to rescind. They finished 
their work by a message to the Governor, thoroughly 
affirming the doings from which they had been ordered to 
dissent. On this Governor Bernard prorogued, and then 
dissolved, the Assembly.^ 

The action of Massachusetts met with general approval 
in the other colonies. Mr. Bancroft says that as for South 
Carolina, they could not enough praise the glorious ninety- 
two who would not rescind, toasting them at banquets and 
marching by night through the streets of Charlestown in 
processions to their honor by the blaze of two and ninety 
torches. 

These circular letters of Massachusetts and Virginia 

1 Bancroft's Hist, of the U. S., vol. VI, chap. XXXIV. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 603 

were received by Peter Manigault, the Speaker of the 
Commons' House of South Carolina, and on the 10th of 
July, 1768, he wrote to Thomas Cushing, Speaker of the 
House of Representatives of Massachusetts, acknowledg- 
ing the receipt of his letter of the 11th of February, and 
saying that the Commons' House of the province of South 
Carolina, ever attentive to the rights and privileges of 
themselves and their constituents in particular, and the 
liberties of America in general, had before their last 
adjournment ordered the committee of correspondence to 
write to Mr. Charles Garth, the agent in Great Britain, 
to join with the agents of the other provinces in obtaining 
a repeal of the acts of Parliament in question ; and they 
had further instructed the agents to join the agents of the 
other provinces in all matters in which the general inter- 
ests of North America were concerned. That the commit- 
tees had written on the 15th of April and giv-en ample 
instructions to Mr. Garth. The House, he wrote, had 
adjourned on the 12th of February, and had since been 
prorogued, and as the term of its existence by law would 
expire on the 13th of September, he thought they would 
not meet again, but would speedily be dissolved, and that 
writs would be issued for the election of a new Assembly ; 
he was afraid, therefore, he would not have the opportunity 
of laying the letter of Massachusetts before the present 
House; but this he hoped would not be attended with any 
inconvenience, as the steps were already taken which the 
letter so fully and warmly recommended. He was per- 
suaded that, notwithstanding the invidious light in which 
his Majesty's faithful colonies had been misrepresented 
to the mother country, the time would soon come when 
they should have a fair and candid hearing, the conse- 
quences of which must be a relief to all. Mr. Manigault 
addressed a similar letter of acknowledgment to Mr. 



604 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses of 
Virginia. 

As Mr. Manigault had intimated, the term of the Com- 
mons then in oiiice expired, and writs were issued for a 
new election on the 5th of October. The election, how- 
ever, aroused but little interest in the province generally. 
On the contrary, there was a general apathy in regard to 
it. So great, indeed, was this that no elections at all were 
held in the parishes of Prince William and St. Helena. 
But the mechanics in Charlestown had not forgotten their 
pledge made around the Liberty Tree. Quite a number 
of them gathered there on Saturday, the 1st of October, to 
consult upon the choice of proper persons to represent them 
in the ensuing Assembly. They first held a meeting in 
town, which was numerously attended, and which consti- 
tuted what would now be called a caucus or nominating 
convention. Several gentlemen were put up for the nomi- 
nation in the two town parishes. A vote was taken, and 
upon the count a great majority were in favor of Christo- 
pher Gadsden, Thomas Smith, Sen'r, and Hopkins Price 
from St. Philip's Parish, and Thomas Smith (designated 

as "B S ," i.e. Broad Street) and Thomas Savage 

from St. Michael's. Henry Laurens and Charles Pinck- 
ne}^, whose names had been suggested, failed to get the 
noinination of the mechanics. 

This matter being settled without the least animosity 
or irregularit}^ the Gazette goes on to say, the company 
partook of a plain and hearty entertainment, provided, it 
seems, by some of the candidates. About five o'clock 
they adjourned to the Liberty Tree, described by the 
Gazette as a most noble oak in Mr. Mazyck's pasture, 
which they had formerly dedicated to Liberty. There 
many loyal, patriotic, and constitutional toasts were drunk, 
beginning with " The glorious ninety-two anti-rescinders of 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 605 

Massachusetts Bay,^'' and ending with ''''Unanimity among 
the members of the ensuing Assembly not to rescind from the 
said resolution.^^ The popular sentiment of at least the 
people of the low country of South Carolina warmly es- 
poused the cause of Wilkes. His private character mat- 
tered not to them. He stood the champion of common 
right and liberty. He was fighting in England in the 
same cause for freedom in which they were about to embark 
in America, and so his name was at once associated with 
those of the glorious iiinety-two of Massachusetts. In the 
evening the Liberty Tree was decorated with forty-five 
lights, and forty-five sky rockets were fired, in honor of 
Wilkes and the North Briton^ No. 45. Then the whole 
company, preceded by forty-five of their number carrying 
as many lights, marched in regular procession to town, 
down King Street to Broad Street to Mr. Dillon's tavern, 
where forty-five lights were placed on the table, and forty- 
five bowls of punch, forty-five bottles of wine, and ninety- 
two glasses. Around these the party spent some hours 
more in a new round of toasts, among which we are told 
that scarce a celebrated patriot of Britain or America was 
omitted. 

But there were many people who were not yet disposed 
to pledge themselves to Wilkes and the non-rescinders of 
Massachusetts, nor to swallow as a whole the ticket of the 
mechanics. Interest became excited in the election. The 
contest was between Mr. Laurens, Mr. Pinckney, Mr. 
Lloyd, and Mr. Ward on the one hand, and the nominees 
of the mechanics, Mr. Price, Mr. Sa^^ge, and Mr. Smith, 
on the other. Christopher Gadsden was acceptable to 
all. The mechanics failed in their efforts to exclude 
Mr. Laurens and Mr. Pinckney; but their favorite leader, 
Christopher Gadsden, was elected without opposition. 
Again, in the evening after the election, they marched in 



606 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

procession with forty-five lights from Mr. Poinsett's to 
Mr. Stephen's coffee-house, and thence with ninety-two 
to Mr. Dillon's, where they drank to unshaken loyalty 
and the love of liberty consistent with it, and to abhor- 
rence of oppression and oppressors- 
Mr. William Wragg had some time before the election 
addressed a letter to the electors of St. John's Parish, 
Colleton,^ in which, while declaring that he would not so 
much as suspect he had incurred their displeasure by mak- 
ing an unseconded motion for erecting a statue in honor of 
his Majesty as an expressive testimony of their loyalty, in 
preference to Mr. Pitt, — a name to which, he says, he would 
give no epithet, but of whose conduct he nevertheless pro- 
ceeds to intimate no flattering opinion, — he expressed 
a desire that the electors would transfer their support to 
some other gentleman in his room, as circumstances had 
occurred to make it impossible for him to give the atten- 
tion which the position required. That he was right in 
believing that his loyalty to the King and his opinion of 
Mr. Pitt had given no offence to his constituents was 
shown by his reelection, notwithstanding his refusal to be 
a candidate. But in another letter, in which he refused 
to serve, he took occasion again to declare that no con- 
sideration made him decline but his inability to comply 
with the terms upon which such an honor ought to be 
possessed. He reminded them that they were not ignorant 
that his political faith was never pinned upon another's 
sleeve, that he had not been intimidated by a supercilious 
brow or forbidding countenance, and that, having the right 
to judge and freedom to speak when their representative, 
he had ever exercised both by supporting and adhering to 
any argument that had weight with him. He was confi- 
dent that the peace and security of his countrymen were 

1 So. Ca. and Am. Gen. Gazette, September 16, 1768. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 607 

no more to be procured by violent resolutions, nor estab- 
lished by outrage and tumult, than Heaven could be taken 
sword in hand. 

Lieutenant Governor Bull prorogued the Assembly from 
the 25th of October to the 15th of November to await 
the return of his Excellency the Governor, Lord Charles 
Montagu, who had been with his lady to Boston. The 
Governor returned on the 30th, much improved in health, 
the ostensible object of his visit to Boston ; but no doubt 
while there he had been in consultation with Governor 
Bernard, and he came back determined to put a stop to 
any reply by the Commons of South Carolina to the circu- 
lar letters of Virginia and Massachusetts. 

The legislature assembled at the State House in Charles- 
town on the 16th of November, 1768, and the House unan- 
imously chose Peter Manigault, the Speaker of the last 
House, Speaker of this. The next day his Excellency 
addressed the Commons' House. After some allusion to 
other matters, he came to the point of his speech. He 
trusted, he said, that the gentlemen would exert them- 
selves to discountenance and treat with the contempt it 
deserved any letter or paper that might have the smallest 
tendency to sedition, or by promoting an unwarrantable 
combination to inflame the minds of j)eople to oppose the 
authority of the Parliament or the government of their 
gracious sovereign. 

The speech of his Excellency Avas referred to a com- 
mittee consisting of Messrs. Parsons, Gadsden, Laurens, 
Pinckney, Rutledge, Lloyd, - Elliot, L3nich, and Dart. 
The Speaker then laid before the House the two letters 
from Virginia and Massachusetts, and by the desire of the 
House read them. He informed the House he had an- 
swered these letters, and read a copy of that to Mr. Gush- 
ing, the Speaker of the House of Massachusetts. The 



608 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

House ordered the two letters referred to the committee 
to whom had been referred the speech of his Excellency. 
On the 19th Mr. Parsons reported from the committee. 
The report assured his Excellency of the loyalty, zeal, and 
affection for his Majesty's person, family, and government, 
which they gloried in saying filled the heart of every 
American subject; and that no paper or letter appearing 
to have the smallest tendency to sedition or to inflame 
the minds of the people to oppose the just authority of 
Parliament or the government of their sovereign had ever 
been laid before them ; that should any such appear, they 
assured his Excellency they should treat it with the con- 
tempt it deserved. The address was adojited by the 
House, and Mr. John Huger and Mr. James Skirving were 
ordered to wait on the Governor and inform his Excellency 
that the House had an address to present. Mr. Parsons 
also reported from the committee a series of resolutions in 
regard to the letters from Massachusetts and Virginia, de- 
claring these replete with duty and loyalty to his Majesty, 
respect to the Parliament of Great Britain, sincere affec- 
tion for their mother country, tender care for the preserva- 
tion of the rights of all his Majesty's subjects, and founded 
upon undeniable constitutional privilege. The committee 
recommended that a humble and dutiful and loyal address 
from the House should at once be prepared and sent to the 
agent, to be presented' to the King, imploring his royal 
protection and interposition with the Parliament to relieve 
the American subjects from the grievances they labored 
under in consequence of the acts passed for raising a reve- 
nue in America. The report was unanimously agreed to 
by the House, and the S])eaker was directed to write to 
the Speakers of the Houses of Massachusetts and Virginia, 
inclosing copies of the resolutions, and assuring them of 
the approbation of the Carolina House of the measures 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 609 

taken by theirs to obtain redress of the grievances men- 
tioned in their letters, and to thank them for communi- 
cating to their fellow-subjects and sufferers in this and 
other provinces the proceedings of their Houses upon these 
important points. 

Of a House of fifty-five members, when properly consti- 
tuted, there were present but twenty-six upon the adoption 
of these resolutions — a fact so significant as to lead 
strongly to the conclusion that some of those at least who 
did not appear remained purposely away. It is true that 
the Commons were seldom prompt in forming a House, it 
often happening that some days were lost in obtaining a 
quorum; but this was an occasion calling for the prompt 
attendance of all those whose hearts were in the movement. 
This supposition is strengthened by the manner in which 
the course of the twenty-six was applauded and com- 
memorated — an applause which would scarcely have been 
so warmly given had there been no opposition. This view 
is countenanced also by an allusion to the minority in the 
letter of Mr. Speaker Manigault to Thomas Gushing, the 
Speaker of Massachusetts, in forwarding the resolutions. 
An examination of the journal shows that the celebrated 
twenty-six were the representatives of the two town 
parishes, and of parishes in the near vicinity of the 
town.^ 

The House then ordered the committee of correspond- 
ence to write to the agent in Great Britain to join with 

1 The following were the members of the Commons' House, elected 
October 6 and 7, 1768. No election took place in St. Helena nor in 
Prince William's Parish. Tacitus Gaillard was returned for both St. 
James's, Goose Creek, and St. George's, Dorchester. He sat for the latter 
parish. Thomas Lynch was returned for both Prince George's, Winyah, 
and All Saints'. He sat for Prince George's. Deducting, therefore, the 
five members from St. Helena, three from Prince William's, and one each 
from St. James's, Goose Creek, and All Saints', there were but forty-five 

VOL. II — 2 R 



610 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the agents of the other provinces in obtaining a repeal of 
the several acts of Parliament which had lately been passed, 
laying duties in America, and to endeavor to prevent the 
clause of billeting soldiers in America in the next act 
upon the subject. They ordered also a committee, to 
consist of Gadsden, Lynch, and Rutledge, to prepare an 
address to his Majesty, humbly imploring his royal protec- 
tion and interposition as recommended in the resolutions 
adopted. 

Mr. Huger then reported that Mr, Skirving and himself 
had waited on the Governor, pursuant to the order of the 
House, and delivered the message they had in charge, 
and that his Excellency would receive the House at one 
of the clock on that day at his own house. Accordingly 
the Speaker, with the House, attended. The Governor 
received them, thanked them for their congratulations 
extended to him on his return, but went on immediately 
to say that he thought it his duty to acquaint them that 

members entitled to seats in this House. The names of the twenty-six 
Anti-rescinders are italics : — 

St. Philip's : Christopher Gadsden, Henry Lanrens, Charles Pinckney. 
St. Michael's : Benjamin Dart, Thomas Savage, John Lloyd. St. James's, 
Goose Creek: (Tacitus Gaillard), Arom Locock, Moses Kirkland. St. 
James's, Santee : Thomas Evance, Daniel Horry. Christ Church : John 
Butledge, John Poaug. St. Thomas's and St. Dennis's : Peter Manigault, 
John Hiiger, Robert Quash, Jr. St. John's, Berkeley : William Monltrie, 
Edward Harleston, John Harleston. St. Andrew's : William Scott, 
Jeremiah Savage, George Sheed. St. Paul's : Benjamin Elliott, Charles 
Elliott, Archibald Stanyarne. St. Bartholomew's: Rawlins Lowndes, 
James Parsons, James Beid, James Skirving, Jr. St. Helena: none. 
Prince Frederick's : Charles Cantey, Theodore Gaillard. St. George's, 
Dorchester : Benjamin Waring, Tacitus Gaillard. Prince George's, 
Wiriyah : Thomas Lynch, Elias Horry. St. John's, Colleton : William 
Wragg, Robert Rivers, John Freer. Prince "William's : none. St. Peter's : 
William Williams. St. Stephen's : Peter Sinkler. St. Mark's, Clarendon : 
Benjamin Farar. All Saints', Waccamaw : (Thomas Lynch), Joseph 
Allston. St. Luke's : Daniel Hey ward, Stephen Drayton. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 611 

his Majesty considered the circular letter from the Massa- 
chusetts Bay, of February 11, 1768, as a measure of the 
most factious tendency, calculated to inflame the minds of 
the good subjects in America, to promote an unwarrant- 
able combination, and encourage an open opposition to, 
and denial of, the authority of Parliament. He hoped that 
the House might see it in this view, and that by paying 
no attention to it they might avoid any disagreeable con- 
sequences that might attend the Contrary. 

Upon their return to their chamber, the House referred 
the Governor's message to the same committee, and ordered 
that his Excellency's speech, with the address of the House 
to him, and the letters from Massachusetts and Virginia, 
with the resolutions thereupon and all matters relating 
thereto, be printed and made public. This was done in a 
special issue of the G-azette.^ 

The House was just in time; for his Excellency the 
Governor, upon their leaving, at once issued his procla- 
mation declaring that he thought it expedient for his Maj- 
esty's service that the present General Assembly should 
be dissolved. 

Mr. Manigault, the Speaker, however, on the 9th of 
January, 1769, in pursuance of the order of the House, 
addressed answers to the Speakers of Massachusetts and 
Virginia, enclosing them journals of the proceedings of 
the House during the short but interesting period of its 
existence, which, he wrote, must convince the impartial 
world that they had acted with duty and affection to his 
]\Iajesty, while they had supported with firmness the rights 
they had under the constitution. The House, he said, 
was dissolved the very day they had entered the resolu- 
tions he enclosed. This mode of proceeding, he added, 

1 The South Carolina Gazette Extraordinary, Thursday, November 
24, 1768. 



612 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

might for a time involve the province in some difficulties ; 
but he trusted that nothing which the Ministry could 
invent would prevail upon a Commons' House of Assembly 
of South Carolina to surrender the liberties and privileges 
of the people to any power upon earth. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

1769 

On February 8, 1769, writs for a new election of Rep- 
resentatives in the General Assembly had been issued for 
Tuesday and Wednesday the 7th and 8th of March. The 
election was accordingly held, and the now famous twenty- 
six who had voted to instruct the Speaker of the last House 
to write to Massachusetts and Virginia were all reelected. 
Saturday, the 11th of March, the anniversary of the repeal 
of the Stamp act was commemorated, as the news of the 
repeal itself had been. The mechanics again had an enter- 
tainment and marched in procession, this time, however, 
preceded by twenty-six lights, to Mr. Dillon's tavern, 
where they were honored by the company of the late 
Speaker, Mr. Manigault, and several of the newly elected 
representatives of the people, and spent the evening in 
the most social and joyous manner, "drinking truly loyal, 
patriotic, and constitutional toasts." The day being as 
well the anniversary of the Masters' Lodge of Free Masons, 
they also met and had an elegant entertainment at Mr. 
Poinsett's tavern, where the most worshij^ful and honor- 
able Egerton Leigh, Esq., Provincial Grand Master, and 
other distinguished brothers, spent the day in a manner 
suitable to the occasion and the institution. At James 
Lsland, too, and several other places in the country, it was 
likewise celebrated. But, says the G-azette^ everywhere 
the joy seemed to be in some measure damped by the ex- 
istence of the Revenue acts, which had been substituted 

613 



614 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for the Stamp act — a repeal of which upon constitutional 
principles that journal held would restore the most perfect 
harmony and such a mutually beneficial union between 
Great Britain and the colonies as every well-wisher of 
both, it added, must desire to be perpetuated. Among 
the toasts drank in the different assemblies upon the occa- 
sion were: "The Great American Patriot; the Pennsyl- 
vania Farmer;" all the patriots in Britain and America by 
names ; " The Virginia and Massachusetts Assemblies ; " 
" The Glorious Ninety-six and Twenty-six ; " " Persever- 
ance and Success to American Manufacturers ; " " Confu- 
sion to all attempts to subvert the British Constitution;" 
" A speedy repeal of all unconstitutional acts of Parliament, 
and a perpetual Union upon constitutional terms." 

The General Assembly, after having been prorogued 
from time to time, was allowed by his Excellency the 
Governor, who had meanwhile made a tour of the upper 
country, to meet on the 26th of June. The Assembly at 
once unanimously reelected Peter Manigault Speaker, and 
presented him to his Excellency, who was pleased to 
approve of the choice ; and thereupon opened the session 
with his speech, as usual upon such occasions. 

His Majesty, he said, had been pleased to intimate to 
him that it was not his intention that the province in 
general should longer suffer on account of the intemperate 
resolutions of the late House by a discontinuance of the 
meetings of the representatives. He had taken the earliest 
opportunity to call them together for the necessary dis- 
patch of the public business, which he tiusted they would 
proceed upon with prudence, unanimity, and expedition. 
He called their attention especially to the grievances their 
fellow-subjects of the interior parts of the province suffered 
from the want of an equal distribution of justice, and as 
he had lately been an eye-witness to the distresses they 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 615 

labored under, lie earnestly recommended the Assembly 
to pursue such measures as would tend to relieve them; 
and to aid their deliberations on this point, he laid before 
the House copies of a report of the Lords Commissioners 
for Trade and Plantations upon the bill for establishing 
circuit courts passed some time since, from which they 
would see the reasons which prevented the act from receiv- 
ing the Ro3^al approbation. He recommended them to 
consider suitable regulations as to the Indian trade; and 
concluded with observing very earnestly that the growing 
interest of the province could not fail to raise the most 
pleasing reflection in the breast of every well-wisher to 
its prosperity. The late liberal bounty granted by Par- 
liament on the importation of silk, as it flattered them 
with hopes of adding another valuable staple to the prov- 
ince, could not fail to add to their gratitude, which the 
many just benefactions they had received from the mother 
country most full}' deserved. 

The act to which his Excellency alluded, that to en- 
courage the culture of silk in the province, granted a 
bounty upon all raw silks imported directly from America 
into the port of London for twenty-one years : for the first 
seven years, twenty-five per cent; for the next seven, 
twenty per cent; and for the last, fifteen per cent. By 
another act at the same time, raw and undressed hides 
and skins imported from any of his Majesty's plantations 
in Amei'ica were relieved from duty, and rice was per- 
mitted to be exported to any part of America to the south- 
ward of Georgia. The boimty upon silk was meant for 
the encouragement especially of the Huguenots who had 
settled in Abbeville. 

In their addresses in answer to the speech of the Gov- 
ernor, the Commons were very firm in the maintenance of 
the position the former House had taken, and replied with 



616 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

spirit that they were extremely concerned that the neces- 
sary and constitutional resolutions of the late House of 
Assembly had given such offence to the government as to 
occasion the late long discontinuance of the sitting and 
holding of the General Assembly when the circumstances 
of the province absolutely required their meeting; but 
more especially when they considered that the discon- 
tinuance was extended beyond the term expressly limited 
both by the election law passed in 1721 and by the constant 
usage and custom from that time. They went on to say 
further that they were willing to believe that his Excel- 
lency did not mean by this step to infringe a right of the 
people of the province, which they, their representatives, 
could upon no consideration give up; they hoped that 
what had been done would neither be drawn into precedent 
nor repeated in the future. 

Having thus read his Excellency a lecture, the House 
went on to say that he might depend upon their proceeding 
in the business committed to them, though, they added, 
they despaired of carrying on the same with greater temper, 
prudence, unanimity, or expedition than the last House 
seemed to have done. They Avere sensibly affected by 
the distresses of their fellow-subjects in the back settle- 
ments, and happy were they that their distresses could not 
be imputed to the representatives of the people, who had 
been always ready to hear their complaints and redress 
their grievances, and who, notwithstanding the little suc- 
cess their repeated attempts had been attended with, would 
with alacrity resume the consideration of that matter, as 
well as that of the regulation of the Indian trade. They 
assured his Excellency they would make ample and speedy 
provision for the payment of the public debt. They were 
truly sensible of and grateful for tlie favors conferred on 
them by their mother country, and sincerely wished that 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 617 

the bounty lately granted for silk might speedily operate 
so as to produce such a quantity of that commodity as 
might be beneficial to the colony, and — they rather un- 
graciously observed — as might prevent Great Britain 
being obliged to seek a precarious supply of that neces- 
sary article of their manufactures from foreigners. 

His Excellency was evidently not in a quarrelsome 
mood. His health was bad, and he expected soon to 
return to England and leave the province in the hands of 
the Lieutenant Governor; so, taking no notice of its un- 
gracious tone, the Governor simply returned his thanks 
for the address, assuring the House that it was never his 
intention to infringe upon any rights of the people, par- 
ticularly when they had the sanction of the law. There 
was probably another reason for his Excellency's mildness. 
He had a demand to make upon the House which he knew 
would be resisted, and he probably did not wish to involve 
himself and his friends in unnecessary questions. 

The British troops which the people of the colony had 
hailed so joyfully but a few years before, when they had 
come to the defence of the province against the Indians in 
the Cherokee war, had become rather a source of fear and 
apprehension than of a sense of protection, and the colo- 
nists who had so welcomed them now began to wish them 
to go. It had been intimated that they were to be with- 
drawn, and one regiment had actually embarked. But 
General Gage, commanding the British forces in America, 
had ordered other troops to Charlestown, and had written 
a letter to his Excellency, calling upon him to provide 
barracks and necessaries for their support; and the Assem- 
bly had scarcely been organized before the Governor sent 
in to the Commons a message making application accord- 
ingly. The message was at once referred to a committee 
consisting of Mr. Lynch, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Dart, Captain 



618 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Gadsden, Mr. Moultrie, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Hiiger, 
Mr. Poaug, and Dr. Oliphant. Captain Gadsden, from 
the committee, reported on the 1st of July, and moved the 
House that a message be sent to the Governor to desire 
his Excellency to inform the House whether his Majesty's 
troops then in the province w^ere to garrison the frontier 
forts, as had been done by the independent companies and 
the several detachments of his Majesty's troops from time 
to time. The message was sent, and the Governor replied 
on the 4th of July, sending in a copy of General Gage's 
letter to him, received before the arrival of the troops. 
General Gage's letter stated that he was apprehensive that 
there would be a larger number of troops assembled at St. 
Augustine than the barracks there could accommodate, and 
begged the favor of his Lordshij) to give directions that 
such a number as the officer commanding at St. Augustine 
should not be able to put under cover might be provided 
with quarters in Charlestown until the next spring. The 
committee took the message and letter, pocketed them, and 
the matter was quietly ignored. On the 27th of July the 
Governor again called their attention to the matter, in 
reply to which a message was sent stating that the House 
had been so closely engaged in consideration of the Circuit 
Court bill for the upper country that the committee to Avhom 
the matter had been referred had not been able to report. 

Lord Charles Montagu was about to leave the province 
for England, and the House politely made him an address, 
expressing their concern for the bad state of his health, 
and the necessity he found himself under of embarking 
for Great Britain on that account; that his Excellency's 
appointment to the government, and his arrival in the 
province, had given the greatest satisfaction ; nor could 
they express their grateful acknowledgment for the gener- 
ous regard his Excellency had upon all occasions desired 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 619 

to show for the welfare of the province. They begged 
particularly to return his Excellency their thanks for the 
assurances of his endeavors to render any service or benefit 
to the province during his residence at home, in which 
they placed the highest confidence, not doubting that it 
would lead to what they most earnestly wished for — a 
good understanding and lasting intercourse upon the prin- 
ciples of justice and constitutional liberty between the 
mother country and all his Majesty's subjects. The 
Governor returned his thanks, and on Saturday, the 29th, 
embarked, saluted by a discharge of cannon from all the 
forts as he passed, and, the Crazette added, had gone fully 
possessed of the affections of the whole body of the people, 
which he had won by the mildness of his administration, 
the easiness of access to his person, and his other ami- 
able qualities. He had gone with all proper and kindly 
things said and done, but he had not gotten an answer to 
his message requiring the Assembly to provide quarters 
for his Majesty's troops. The Governor had left the 
province, and Lieutenant Governor Bull for the third 
time assumed the administration of affairs. 

On the 10th of August Mr. Lynch reported from the 
committee to whom the Governor's several messages and 
General Gage's letter had been referred. The committee 
were of opinion, he reported, that no provision ought to 
be made for supplying the troops now in Charlestown with 
barracks and necessaries : first, because it appeared clearly 
from General Gage's letter that the troops in question 
were not intended to do the duty of garrisons on the 
frontier; second, because it appeared that the only reason 
of their being sent here was because they could not be 
quartered in the barracks at St. Augustine, where they 
were intended to be placed ; third, because General Gage 
had not in his letter applied to his Excellency for any such 



620 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

necessaries ; and, fourth, because the existing act of Par- 
liament for raising a revenue in the colonies for the pur- 
pose of supporting and maintaining his Majesty's rights 
in America, by virtue of which a very large revenue was 
actually levied on the inhabitants of the colony, furnished 
a fund, out of which the committee thought the expense 
and quarters of these troops should be defrayed. 

The report was adopted on the 16th of August, and a 
message was sent to the Lieutenant Governor informing 
him that the House would not agree to make any provision 
for the troops. This message, which was prepared by a 
committee, and reported by Mr. Rutledge on the 19th of 
August, enlarged upon Mr. Lynch's report, and concluded 
with an assurance to the Lieutenant Governor that when 
the acts so loudly and unanimously complained of by their 
fellow-subjects of America as unconstitutional should be 
repealed, and the colonies restored to that degree of his 
Majesty's favor and confidence which they formerly en- 
joyed and justly deserved, and to their ancient free and 
honorable station of granting or refusing what should be 
constitutionally required for his Majest3'''s service, they 
would at all times rejoice in every opportunity of mani- 
festing their duty and affection to his sacred person and 
government by a ready attention to all requisitions on the 
part of the Crown and speedy compliance with such as 
should appear to them just and reasonable. 

The Parliament in England had greatly aggravated the 
causes of trouble already existing, by adopting at the in- 
stance of the Duke of Bedford an address to the sovereign 
suggesting that the names of the most active agitators 
should be transmitted to one of the Secretaries of State, 
and that a long-disused statute, which empowered the 
government to bring to England for trial persons accused 
of treason, should be put in force. The last, and indeed 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 621 

the only, instance in which this law had been applied to 
America was that of Culpepper before alluded to, who 
was arrested in England and tried there on the charge 
of treason in Carolina. Virginia promptly resented the 
threat. The House of Burgesses adopted a series of reso- 
lutions claiming the sole right of imposing taxes, asserting 
the lawfulness and expediency of procuring a concert of 
the colonies, protesting against the flagrant tyranny of 
applying to America the obsolete statute of Henry the 
Eighth, and warning the King of the dangers that would 
ensue if any person in any part of America should be 
seized and carried beyond the sea for trial. It asked the 
concurrence of every legislature in America to these reso- 
lutions. On the 17th of August, the Speaker, Peter 
Manigault, laid before the House a letter of Peyton Ran- 
dolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 
enclosing a copy of these resolutions, whereupon it was 
resolved that the House would take them into considera- 
tion on the next Saturday, and ordered that every member 
should attend. On that day the House proceeded to the 
consideration of the Virginia resolutions, and unani- 
mously concurred in them. 

As we have seen, the resolutions of the last House 
approving the refusal of the Massachusetts House of Rep- 
resentatives to rescind their circular letter, while passed 
unanimously by those present, were adopted by a House 
composed of a bare majority of its members. In passing 
these resolutions, which may well be termed a Bill of 
Rights, the present House took care to allow no such pos- 
sible reflection in this case. They ordered that a list of 
members of the House be called, which was accordingly 
done, when it appeared that out of forty-one members who 
had qualified, thirty-seven were present agreeing to them ; 
that of the remaining four, three had obtained leave of 



622 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

absence some days before, and the other member was unable 
to attend from sickness. 

On Thursday, the 23d of August, after the Lieutenant 
Governor had assented to several bills then presented to 
him, he addressed the Council and House, saying that as 
they had been sitting many weeks during a very inclement 
season of warm weather, in which they had perfected such 
bills as were most immediately necessary for the welfare and 
service of the province, he did not doubt that a recess to 
Tuesday, the 7th of November, would be agreeable to them. 

Two weeks after, the 5th of September, his Majesty's 
21st Regiment, which had caused the controversy about 
the quartering and supplying of the British troops, were 
embarked for Florida. So the Assembly had carried that 
point. On the 14th a mandamus was received, giving a 
seat in his Majesty's Council to William Wragg. 

While the people of South Carolina had generally been 
content with the repeal of the Stamp act and had not been 
alarmed at the contemporaneous passage of the Declaratory 
act, nor much concerned by the new taxes on tea and glass, 
etc., they had responded at once to the call of Massachu- 
setts and Virginia ; and the Assembly had boldly asserted 
and resolutely maintained the right of the colonies to con- 
sult and concert their action and, when dissolved for so 
insisting upon their right, the people had returned again 
every one who had so voted. They had refused to quarter 
and supply his Majesty's troops unless the troops were to 
be used to garrison and guard their own frontier posts ; and 
they had most solemnly protested against the seizure and 
trial of persons charged with crimes in any other but their 
own tribunals. All this they had done, while assuring 
his Majesty, as was no doubt then at least true, of the 
loyalty and affection of his subjects in South Carolina to 
his person and government. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

1767-70 

While these commotions were going on in the low 
country, the disturbances in the upper continued, and the 
good people there were becoming more and more urgent 
that law and order should be secured them; that they 
should be relieved, on the one hand, from the great incon- 
venience of having to come all the way to Charlestown to 
obtain redress for their wrongs and to punish the criminals 
that were among them ; and, on the other, that the Regu- 
lators, who were themselves becoming equal violators of 
the law Avith those against whom they were originally or- 
ganized, should be repressed. The case was peculiar. The 
Scotch-Irish immigration, which had come into the prov- 
ince by wa}^ of the foot of the mountains, had disarranged 
the regular course of the development of the colony from 
the seacoast. Until their coming, as we have seen, the 
settlement of the province had been by way of the rivers, 
and as the population ascended them, townships were first 
formed, and these were developed into parishes as soon 
as a sufficient number of families were found. The parish 
was the civil as well as the ecclesiastical unit of local 
government, and its officers Avere in some instances the 
administrators of municipal law, managers of elections, 
and so forth. In this way the frontier parishes of St. 
David's, St. Mark's, and Prince William's were supposed 
to extend over and include all the province beyond the 
older settlements. This was the established order of the 
colony. But this condition did not suit the new-comers. 
These settlers had not grown up with this order. They 

623 



624 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

had come in so large a bod}- as to bring with them a social 
order of their own, — an order to which they were zealously 
attached, — and this order, it happened, was based upon a 
religious system different from that which prevailed on 
the coast, and which was definitely and historically an- 
tagonistic to it. The coast was settled to a great degree 
by churchmen, the upper country by Presbyterians. These 
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, too, had brought with them 
their own well-settled customs and manners. They had 
not come by way of London or English towns or Bridge- 
town, Barbadoes, as had the people on the coast, bringing 
with them the habits of English town life, but from Scot- 
land to Ireland, and from Ireland to Pennsylvania, and 
thence through Virginia and North Carolina to the Wax- 
haws in South Carolina. Bringing with them thus in the 
first instance rural and not city habits, they had been long 
enough in the remoter settlements of America to develop 
a distinct form of society of their own — a form of society 
which, lacking the culture and polish which that on the 
coast was receiving from its constant close intercourse 
with London, was nevertheless developing in the strongest 
form the best elements of republican life. This society 
was based, too, upon a religious organization of its own. 
It came with its ministers, who taught as well as preached ; 
so by the side of the rude structure of the meeting-house, 
there was usually built a still ruder building, which 
roughly answered for a schoolhouse. How was this society 
to be incorporated into that on the coast? The problem 
was sufficiently difficult of itself, but it was still further 
complicated by the fact that there was another and very 
different class of men contending with the sturdy and 
honest back settlers whom we have been describing, who 
recognized no law or order whatsoever. These were the 
scum of the population of Europe, which the disbandment 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 625 

of the armies of France and England upon the Peace of 
Paris in 1763 had turned loose upon the frontiers of 
America, and to whom were joined the refugees from jus- 
tice in the better settled portions of the country — a class 
always to be found on the frontiers of civilization. These 
were the men who had given rise to the Regulators. 

The Governor, as we have seen, had made a tour through 
this section, and had come back impressed with the neces- 
sity of providing courts for these people; but he had left 
the government, and the Attorney General, Egerton Leigh, 
the Clerk of Court, Dougal Campbell, and the Provost 
Marshal, Richard Cumberland, the last sitting as clerk of 
the Board of Trade and Plantations in London, were all 
setting up their vested rights in the patents they held for 
the emoluments of these offices as good reasons against 
reform in the administration of justice, which might per- 
chance interfere and lessen their profits and fees. The 
General Assembly in Charlestown had not been unwilling 
to correct the evils of which their brethren in the upper 
country were so justly complaining, and had given the 
matter all the time they could spare from their controver- 
sies with Boone about Gadsden's election and with Lord 
Charles Montagu about the Massachusetts circular, and 
the Stamp act, and the quartering of Gage's troops. In- 
deed, they had really done all they could and truly answered 
his Excellency that the distress of these people could not 
be imputed to them, as they had always been ready to hear 
their complaints and redress their grievances. The diffi- 
culty was to obtain the consent of the Board of Trade in 
London to an}^ act which would in the least interfere 
wdth the emoluments of the patentees of the officers of the 
court, and which would secure the independence of the 
judges. 

On the 6th of November, 1767, Moses Kirkland, who 

VOL. II — 2 s 



626 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was to become notorious, first as a Regulator, afterward as 
a Revolutionist, and then as a deserter to the Royalists, 
becoming one of the most inveterate enemies of the cause 
of independence, — a man of bad character, but of consid- 
erable influence, — joined with otlier inhabitants of the 
back country in a memorial to the General Assembly 
upon the subject of the condition of the people there. 
The memorial was objected to on account of improper 
and unbecoming expressions, which it may well have con- 
tained if he had a hand in its composition ; for he was a 
vain, insolent, and illiterate man. Another, however, was 
presented in its place, disclaiming any intention of using 
language unbecoming petitioners, and this immediately 
received the attention of the House, and was referred to a 
committee, who promptly reported the next day, recom- 
mending the establishment of circuit courts with summary 
jurisdiction in small civil causes, and in all criminal mat- 
ters not extending to life, and also that companies should 
be raised to assist the justices of the peace in suppress- 
ing disorders and preventing disturbances and bringing 
offenders to justice. ^ But there were two great difficul- 
ties in the way: first, that the Board of Trade required 
the holders of the patent offices of Provost Marshal, Clerk 
of the Court, and Attorney General should be secured 
against loss by reason of any changes in the judicial sys- 
tem; and, second, that they would not allow any change 
in the tenure of the judges ; and this the Commons were 
resolved to attempt, so as to secure that the justices of the 
courts should hold during good behavior, and not at the 
pleasure of the Crown. The first was a matter of expense 
to which, however unreasonable, the Commons were will- 
ing to go. For the other, the independence of the judici- 
ary, they were determined to make a great effort. 

1 Commons Journal (MSS.). 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 627 

The office of Provost Marshal, or High Sheriff, of the 
province was the most important to the colony, and at the 
same time the most valuable to the patentee. This office, 
as we have seen, had been granted to Mr. Thomas Lowndes 
when the government was finally surrendered by the Pro- 
prietors to the Crown in 1729, and he had assigned the 
patent to George Morley, who had come out from England 
to Charlestown and assumed the duties, which he per- 
formed until 1736, when Robert Hall was appointed to 
succeed him. Robert Hall held the office until his death 
in 1740, when he was succeeded by his ward, Rawlins 
Lowndes, whose father had emigrated to South Carolina 
from St. Christopher, or St. Kitts, of the Leeward Islands. 
Rawlins Lowndes, who was now taking so conspicuous a 
part in the momentous affairs of the province, was a minor 
at the time of Mr. Hall's death ; but the permanent appoint- 
ment to this important office was reserved for him until 
he came of age in 1742. He held the office for ten years, 
when he was succeeded by his brother Charles, who had 
also been educated under the care of Mr. Hall. Charles 
Lowndes was succeeded in 1764 by Richard Cumberland, 
Clerk of Reports at the Board of Trade and Plantations, 
doubtless as a perquisite to that office. Cumberland, 
who was of a distinguished family, and a dramatic author 
of repute, — the "Sir Fretful Plagiary" of Sheridan's 
Critic^ — had of course no idea of coming to Carolina. 
He was content to draw upon his imagination, and the 
occasional acquaintances he formed at the Board with the 
colonists who had business there, for his character in Tlie 
West Indian — the young scapegrace fresh from the tropics 
"with rum and suo-ar enouefh belonofingf to him to make 
all the water in the Thames into punch " — without cross- 
ing the Atlantic to study the manners of the Barbadians, 
and to receive his fees from his deputy without coming to 



628 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Carolina to serve writs, especially if in doing so he would 
have to encounter such characters as Moses Kirkland, 
Barnaby Pope, and Thomas Woodward. He preferred to 
remain in England and enjoy the society of Johnson and 
Burke and Goldsmith and Reynolds, to whose notice his 
plays were now introducing him, to any such adventures 
in the up country of South Carolina. So he appointed 
Roger Pinckney of Peterborough, England, his deputy, 
who came out and filled the office until 1769, when Cum- 
berland was bought out by the government, and the office 
abolished by act of Assembly. 

The colonial government had been endeavoring for 
several years past to obtain control of this office, and had 
opened a negotiation with Cumberland through Mr. Saxby, 
the Receiver General of South Carolina, who ha]3pened to 
be in England, in 1764, for the purchase of his patent, 
whereby they might appoint their own sheriff. The cor- 
respondence between Cumberland and his assignee, Pinck- 
ney, in relation to this negotiation, has been preserved, 
and presents a curious subject of study of the times, in 
which private interests in a public office were allowed for 
so long a period to interfere with the administration of 
justice and the settlement of the province. Cumberland 
writes to Pinckney, the 1st of October, 1764, that Mr. Saxby 
had persuaded him that the government would give him 
X5000, nay, perhaps X6000 sterling, and that he made 
no doubt that he could procure his Majesty's consent to 
annul the patent and vest the power of appointing their 
own sheriffs in the government of South Carolina; the 
reasonableness of the request and the expediency of the 
measure, so salutary to the province and so economical to 
the public, would, he dare say, when supported by the 
influence of his patron (Lord Halifax), carry through 
the measure. He then proceeds to advise Pinckney how 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 629 

he should act in the negotiation with the government. 
He writes : — 

" The part, therefore, I now wish you to act is to throw out a hint 
to some of the leading members of the Assembly that you have no 
authority from Mr. Cumberland to suppose he would part from his 
employment to them, but, however, that you do conceive he would 
listen to advantageous terms ; that these terms should be to vest as 
much money in y« English Funds as shall procure an equivalent to 
him for his present reservation." 

Commencing with this diplomatic caution, the negotia- 
tion continued through the next three years off and on, 
but was interrupted by the commotion over the Stamp act. 
On the 3d of June, 1767, Cumberland writes to Pinckney 
that ]\Ir. Garth, the provincial agent, had presented a 
memorial to Lord Shelburne, Secretary of State, relative 
to the purchase of his patent; that the result of which was 
yet in suspense, though he was much inclined to think 
that the government would accede to their proposal, pro- 
vided the legislature would be content to pass a bill of the 
same nature with those which had been passed in the other 
colonies for establishing sheriffs, and would accompany 
that bill with a clause suspending the execution until his 
Majesty's or his patentee's consent was obtained. On the 
29th of July he again writes that the Board of Trade had 
made a report recommending his Majesty to instruct the 
Governor of South Carolina to give his assent to an act 
substituting county sheriffs in lieu of a Provost Marshal, 
provided proper compensation be made to the patentee, 
but that its execution should be suspended till his 
Majesty's pleasure should be known ; and he informs 
Pinckney that he had declared to Mr. Garth what his 
terms definitely were — X5000 sterling was the sum he 
liad demanded. If they would assent to this proposal, he 
writes, and would empower Mr. Garth to conclude with 



630 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

him upon these conditions, he would cause instructions 
to be transmitted agreeable to the order of council: but 
that if they would not close upon this bargain, it would 
be of no use to transmit the instructions while their nego- 
tiations remained open. Mr. Cumberland could well afford 
to stand upon his terms, for the King himself interfered 
in his behalf, and through Earl Shelburne informs Mr. 
Garth, the agent of the province, that he will graciously 
allow the office of Provost Marshal to be changed to that 
of sheriffs for the several counties, provided compensa- 
tion be made to Mr. Cumberland, and the Earl is assured 
that this condescension of the King, and fresh proof of his 
attention to the interest and happiness of the people, will 
convince them that the province of South Carolina is at 
present the immediate object of the Royal care, and will 
call for a manifestation of gratitude and affection on their 
part. Thus it was that the right of the colonial govern- 
ment and people to provide for the enforcement and exe- 
cution of the judgments and decrees of their courts, and 
for the preservation of their law and order, was made the 
subject of barter by one, — and he an alien, — one who had 
never been in the colony, who was living in London on 
the emoluments of this office, and who, sitting at the 
Board of Trade as one of its clerks, was able through his 
influence there to have all measures for the establishment 
of courts in the province rejected by the Crown until his 
enormous demand of $25,000 should be paid.^ 

On the 13th of November the General Assembly in- 
structed the Committee of Correspondence to acquaint 
Mr. Garth that the House had agreed to pay the sum of 
X5000 to Mr. Cumberland, the patentee of the Provost 

1 Documents connected loith So. Ca. (Weston), 100 et seq. ; Ramsay's 
Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 120 ; Mudford's Life of Cumberland, vol. II, 
Appendix ; Commons Journal, March 20, 17G8. 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 631 

Marshal's office, upon his Majesty's giving his assent to 
an act appointing county sheriffs in lieu of Proyost 
Marshals, and that the House had ordered a bill brought 
in for establishing circuit and county courts. But now 
they had come to a bargain with Mr. Cumberland for one 
office, two other personages appear claiming that their 
patents must not be interfered with. Mr. Egerton Leigh, 
on the 5th of January, presents his memorial, stating that 
by letter patent he had been appointed Attorney General, 
to have and hold, exercise and enjoy, the said office, with 
all and singular the rights, salaries and allowances, fees, 
profits, privileges, and emoluments thereunto belonging, 
etc., and that he was apprehensive that from the nature 
of the jurisdiction to be given to these new courts he would 
lose the accustomed profits and allowances arising from 
public prosecutions, which were the principal emoluments 
of his office, and that by this means his income might be 
reduced one-half of its present value, and he asks that his 
interests may be protected. And so does Mr. Dougal 
Campbell, who comes in b}^ memorial also, and sets up 
his patent as clerk, and asks that provision may be made 
for the loss which he must necessarily sustain by reason 
of providing courts for the people of the back country, by 
means whereof they will not have to come to that at 
Charlestown, where he keeps his office and receives his 
fees. 

But the General Assembly having provided for the pur- 
chase of Cumberland's patent, who, sitting at the Board 
of Trade, could countervail their efforts to give courts to 
the people, were not inclined to do as much for these other 
impeders of justice. They were willing, however, to make 
some provision for them also. 

On the 4th of March, 1768, the Commons passed a bill 
for establishing courts, building jails, and appointing 



632 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sheriffs and other officers for the more convenient admin- 
istration of justice in the province. By this bill the 
province was divided into seven judicial districts or cir- 
cuits ; the places of holding the courts were to be at 
Charlestown, Orangeburg, Camden, Ninety-six, Cheraw, 
Georgetown, and Beaufort. The court in each place was 
to have all the powers of the General Court at Charlestown, 
in all cases, civil and criminal, as to all suits and prose- 
cutions arising in the respective circuits, and was to be 
held by the Chief Justice and the four Assistant Judges, 
or any one of them. The office of Provost Marshal was 
abolished, and a sheriff for each district or precinct was 
to be appointed by the Governor from three resident free- 
holders whom the judges should nominate at their first sit- 
ting after his Majesty's allowance of the act, and after the 
court-house and jail should be built. The judges were 
authorized to contract for the purchase of land for the 
purpose and the building of the court-houses and jails. ^ 
The act was not to go into operation, however, until the 
Governor by his proclamation had given notice that it had 
received his Majesty's allowance and approbation, and 
that the court-houses and prisons were built and com- 
pleted. In order to secure, if possible, the independence 
of the judges for their new courts, the General Assembly 
expressly provided that when it should please his Majesty 
to appoint the Chief Justice and justices of the province 
during good behavior, the Chief Justice should receive as 
a salary <£500 and each of the Assistant Justices £300 
sterling. The present Attorney General was allowed a 
salary of <£200, and the preseut clerk of the Common 
Pleas X300 per annum. Fines, penalties, and forfeitures 
were to go into the Treasury as a fund, out of which these 
salaries were to be paid if sufficient; if not, the salaries 

^ Commons Journal (MSS.). 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 633 

were to be paid out of any money lying there. A few days 
after, i.e. the 8th of April, the House appropriated £35,000 
currency, and placed that sum in the hands of a committee 
of Thomas Lynch and others, to pay Cumberland, the 
patentee, for resigning his office, upon his Majesty's giv- 
ing his Royal assent to the bill establishing these courts ; 
and on the 12th they instructed Mr. Garth, the agent, to 
declare to the ministry that in case the fund provided for 
the payment of the judges, that is, the fines, forfeitures, 
and penalties, should be deemed insufficient, they would 
provide some other permanent fund to render the judges 
entirely independent as soon as his Majesty should au- 
thorize the Governor to issue commissions during good 
behavior. His Excellency assented to the bill in the 
Council Chamber on the 12th of April; but it had by its 
terms to receive the Royal assent before it went into opera- 
tion, and thus a further delay was inevitable. The General 
Assembly had thus done all they could for the people of 
the back country. Indeed, they were taxing themselves 
heavily to provide courts for these people. The court at 
Charlestown was sufficient for all their purposes, and 
though the Provost Marshal's office was a sinecure to 
Mr. Cumberland in London, it was efficient enough, as 
administered by Mr. Roger Pinckney, for all the low 
country. Its inefficiency was only in these settlements 
in the upper country. Yet the cost of this purchase of 
Cumberland's patent would fall almost entirely upon the 
people on the coast, and to this they were willing to add 
a guarantee fund for the payment of the judges under the 
new system. But they were in earnest that if they paid 
for these courts, the judges of them should hold by a 
tenure independent of the pleasure of the Crown. This 
was surely reasonable. On the other hand, the good 
people of the upper part of the province were sorely dis- 



634 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tressed, and were more anxious to have the courts than par- 
ticular as to the terms upon which they could be obtained. 
Moses Kirkland, as we have seen, had headed a memorial 
to the Assembly, praying for the establishment of courts 
in that section. Whether he really desired them there is 
certainly reason to doubt; but he was determined he would 
not answer to one in Charlestown. On the 29th of July 
his Honor the Lieutenant Governor informed the Council 
that the judges had Avaited on him that morning with an 
affidavit upon which they desired him to issue a writ of 
assistance to the Provost Marshal to enable him to enforce 
the King's process and to bring daring offenders to justice. 
This affidavit was by one John Wood, a deputy of Roger 
Pinckney, who stated that, having several processes re- 
turnable to the Court of Common Pleas at Charlestown, 
among them one against Moses Kirkland, two against 
Thomas Sumter,^ and one against William Scott, he had 
served several of the persons, and particularly had levied 
the execution against William Scott, and was on his way 
to town with eight negroes he had taken from him, when 
on the 27th of June he was overtaken by five armed men, 
Avho jerked him from his horse, disarmed him, and tied 
his hands, then lifted him on his horse and tied his feet 
under his horse's belly, and so had taken him to the house 
of one Frazer, beating him all the wQ,y as they went ; there 
they had chained him to a post, where they kept him until 
the 2d of July, when he was removed to the house of one 

1 This is the first mention we have found of one of the heroes of the 
Eevolution in South Carolina. One to whom, more than to any other, is 
the credit due of having arrested the victorious march of the British 
troops through the Southern States, after the fall of Charlestovra in 1780, 
and to whose military genius, it will hereafter appear, the redemption of 
the province was principally owing, and whose name is perpetuated by 
the fortress in Charleston harbor, the glorious defence of which in the late 
war between the States so worthily honors it. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 635 

Barnaby Pope, and thence to the house of Thomas Wood- 
ward; that he was to have been taken again to Pope's 
house, where he was to have been tried and made to eat 
the processes he had served, and to have been flogged ; but 
that he had escaped. He stated that Kirkland, Woodward, 
and Pope were the ringleaders, and swore they would not 
allow the service of any process of the Provost Marshal in 
that section. 1 Upon the advice of the Attorney General 
a writ of assistance was granted; but we have no informa- 
tion as to what became of it. 

The inhabitants of the western part of the province had 
numerous meetings on Friday, the 23d of September, and 
proposed coming to the respective parish churches in the 
low country to vote at the election, for which writs had 
been issued for members of the Assembly, as the boundary 
lines, they claimed, had been run out by the surveyor 
engaged to make a general survey of the jDrovince so as 
to include them.^ This gave rise to great alarm in the 
several parishes, in which it Avas believed that the Regu- 
lators were coming down upon them. Some of these 
people did come on the occasion, but they do not seem to 
have made a point of their right to vote. They behaved 
everywhere with decency and propriety. They urged 
upon their neighbors the intolerable grievances they 
labored under, and seemed, it was said, to have mostly in 
view a more equal representation in the Assembly; the 
obtaining an act for better regulating the public officers' 
fees, especially in law matters, and another act for estab- 
lishing county courts, if the precinct court bill, lately sent 
home, should fail to receive the Royal approval. 

A memorial was prepared, which was to have been 
adopted at a general meeting of the inhabitants on the 

1 Commons Journal (MSS.). 

2 So. Ga. and Am. Gen. Gazette., September 30, 1768. 



636 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Congaree and Wateree about this time, setting forth their 
troubles in the hope of some action for their relief; but as 
the General Assembly was dissolved by the Governor, as 
we have seen, before it had touched any of the public 
business, it was deemed proper to publish the memorial, 
that the case might be understood. The memorialists 
urged that it was the want of the due operation of the 
government that they deplored ; that it was the denial of 
that protection which British subjects and honest men had 
a right to that with bleeding hearts they regretted; that 
their dissatisfaction was founded upon the deprivation of 
their dearest birthrights; that notwithstanding the vast 
increase of their people and extent of settlement, there 
was but one court of judicature, and that not in the centre, 
but at an extreme part of it. That this was replete with 
innumerable evils. It deprived them even of the most 
darling right of British subjects, Trial hy Peers. For 
they conceived that by the fundamental laws of Great 
Britain, jurors who sat in the courts of law at Charles- 
town were, as to them in their present case, to be deemed 
foreigners; that they were not of their vicinage; they 
were .not in most cases of their counties, large as their 
counties were ; that by this fatal solecism in the adminis- 
tration of justice, their lives, their liberties, and their 
property were rendered insecure. They dwelt upon the 
great expense, the exorbitant fees of court and lawyers, 
and depicted the cruel and wretched state to which their 
society had been reduced by their efforts to repress vio- 
lence, protect property, and restore order. ^ 

The disturbances in this section continued, and began 
to cause uneasiness and unnecessary alarms in the parishes. 
In March, 1769, an express brought to Charlestown an 
alarming report, upon which several councils were lield. 

^ So. Ca. and Am. Gen.' Gazette, December 5, 1768. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 637 

Application was made for assistance to bring to town 
some of the Regulators, who had been taken up by virtue 
of warrants from the court in Charlestown, and who, it 
was supposed, would be rescued; and upon the call of 
the Governor a considerable number of gentlemen offered 
themselves as volunteers. Every preparation was made 
for their setting out on Sunday morning, when a stop 
was put to the further proceedings by the arrival of the 
prisoners, who had been conducted about 180 miles, under 
a guard of only eight men, without meeting the least 
attempt at rescue. 

But there was great trouble, nevertheless, and the up 
country was on the verge of civil war. Scofield, whom 
the Governor had commissioned, as we have seen, to put 
down these disturbances, had acted in the most insolent 
and outrageous manner. He styled himself "Colonel," 
and erected something which was intended to be a royal 
standard, and claimed to have authority superior to all 
county magistrates and militia officers; engaged volun- 
teers at X20 per month, and a bottle of rum per day; im- 
pressed provisions and horses whenever he pleased, leaving 
whole families destitute of both. He promiscuously seized 
all that had been styled Regulators, though not mentioned 
in any warrants, and confined them in cellars and dun- 
geons. He had many returned horse thieves and banditti 
in his.retinue, and extorted an oath from those engaged in 
his service. 

The people among whom this man was thus conducting 
himself under the pretence of authority became exasper- 
ated, and assembled in a large body toward the close of 
March in order to compel him to show with what power 
he was invested, and determined that if they found that 
he had not the authority he claimed, to bring him to justice 
at all events. The parties were gathered and encamped 



638 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

within musket shot of each other on the Saluda River, 
when an order arrived from the Governor dismissing Sco- 
field, and much bloodshed was thus prevented. Colonels 
Richard Richardson, William Thompson, and Daniel 
McGirt, gentlemen of great reputation and highly es- 
teemed by the whole body of back settlers, exerted them- 
selves on this occasion with great spirit, discretion, and 
success.^ The two first were to espouse the cause of the 
colonies, and, remaining faithful thereto, were to become 
distinguished leaders in the Revolution which followed. 
The latter also at first acted with his friends and relatives 
on that side, but under great provocation abandoned it, 
denouncing vengeance against all the Americans for his 
ill treatment, and executed his threats most fearfully and 
most vindictively.^ 

These alarms on the coast, however, induced the Gov- 
ernor to make the tour of the province to which we have 
alluded, and upon which he set out in May; and, as we 
have seen, upon the meeting of the Assembly in June, he 
called their attention to the grievances which the people 
of the interior suffered from the want of justice, of which 
he had himself been an eye-witness, and at the same time 
laid before them the objections of the Lords Commission- 
ers of Trade to the act establishing circuit courts. 

This unfortunate act, on its arrival in England, encoun- 
tered fresh obstacles to its allowance. On the 15th of 
August, 1768, Cumberland writes to Pinckney that on 
account of its importance, and in delicacy to his interests, 
it had been for some time under examination by the Lords 
of Trade. Sir Matthew Lamb, one of his Majesty's Coun- 
cil, to whom, he says, the Board refers all Plantation acts, 
had objected to some clauses in the bill, particularly to 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, March 23 to April 26, 1769. 

2 Johnson's Traditions, 44, 172. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 639 

the summary jurisdiction of the judges in their circuit 
courts, and because the salaries of the Attorney General and 
the Clerk of the Pleas were granted to them personally while 
in office and not annexed to their offices. But the main 
objection, he writes, was to the clause for granting sala- 
ries to the judges whenever his Majesty should change 
the present form of their commissions and establish them 
during good behavior; against this clause the chief force 
of his objection was directed — it would be derogatory to 
the King's dignity to pass an act with such a clause in it. 
Mr. Garth had been allowed a solemn hearing by the Board 
on a day singly set apart for this business, and he had 
spoken for two hours on the question with great ability 
and spirit. The Lords of Trade got over the objection of 
Mr. Lamb to the summary jurisdiction clause as a law 
of the same sort obtained in Ireland; and the Attorney 
General's clause, though exceptionable, was not regarded 
as fatal against a bill productive of such general benefit; 
but as to the clause for altering the judge's commissions 
so as to continue during good behavior, that was not so 
easil}' acquiesced in. A particular instruction in the year 
1760 had been* circulated to all the Continental Governors 
forbidding them to give their assent to any act of As- 
sembly for making alteration in the commission of the 
judges, because of some steps of that nature taken in New 
York, and a similar clause was incorporated in Lord 
Charles Montagu's instructions. In the face of such an 
article, it was Mr. Cumberland's opinion that it was not 
possible for the government to ap2)rove the act. And so 
by his next letter of October 12, he informs Pinckney the 
Board had so decided. ^ 

In the meanwhile the inhabitants of the up country 
became more and more impatient of delay and clamorous 

^ Documents connected with So. Ca. (Weston), 141. 



640 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

for courts upon any terms. On the 4th of July, 1768, 
Thomas Bell, William Calhoun, Andrew Williamson, and 
Patrick Calhoun, in behalf of themselves and others, pre- 
sented a memorial to the General Assembl}^, setting out 
that they were entitled to the liberties of British subjects, 
among which were a right to have courts established 
among them, that they might not be obliged to travel 
almost two hundred miles to Charlestown for justice, and 
protested against the General Assembly insisting upon 
the clause about the tenure of the judges, which would 
forever prevent his Majesty from assenting to it. They 
asked, too, to have the parishes properly divided, as they 
were now two hundred miles long, the lines having been 
run up to the Cherokee border, and stated that they had 
been refused votes after travelling so far, except in Prince 
William's Parish. Ministers of the gospel and school- 
masters were also much wanted, as many people had never 
seen a church or heard a sermon. The want of a vagrant 
act had been in a great measure the occasion of the Regu- 
lators laying themselves open to the law and to a set of 
people called Moderators, who behaved themselves worse 
than the Regulators. They wanted public roads, and com- 
missioners to see that they were properly laid out and 
cleared; and as the bounty on hemp and flax had expired, 
they thought one on flour would be of service to that part 
of the country ; and, lastl}^ they represented that the lands 
on the frontier ought not to be taxed as lands of great 
value near the markets. 

The next day another memorial from other inhabitants 
of the frontier and interior parts of the province was pre- 
sented, representing that since the Cherokee war the back 
settlements had been in a state of anarchy, disorder, and 
confusion from causes too bitter to be remembered, which 
unless speedily remedied would occasion new scenes of 



tTNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 641 

distress, be destructive to trade and commerce, and entail 
on them and their posterity a train of calamities perhaps 
impossible to be redressed, and praying for courts such as 
had been provided in the act which had just been dis- 
allowed by the home government; praying that the parish 
of St. Mark's, which contained an extent of country and 
number of white inhabitants at least equal to one-third of 
the province, be divided into three or more parishes, and 
that churches and chapels should be built for the inhab- 
itants, and public schools be established for their children. 
These memorials were referred to a committee, of which 
Joseph Kershaw of St. Mark's Parish was chairman, who 
on the 20th reported that the parishes of St. David's, St. 
Mark's, and others on the frontier, being a large extent of 
country containing from the best information the com- 
mittee had been able to obtain at least three-fourths of the 
white inhabitants of the province, be divided and laid 
out into several parishes, and that convenient churches 
and chapels should be built, and that when the parishes 
should be so laid out, they should have members to 
represent them in the Commons. They recommended an 
additional bounty on hemp, and that inspectors of tobacco 
and flour should be appointed for the encouragement of 
raising these articles. They recommended that public 
scliools be erected in different parts of the province, and a 
sum of money be granted annually to a schoolmaster for 
each, for which they should educate respectively a certain 
number of poor children. Some months after — 16th of 
April, 1770 — Mr. Kershaw again reports a plan for 
dividing the new parts of the province into additional 
parishes, but in the turmoil of the Revolution, which was 
now fast approaching, these wise and necessary measures 
were neglected on the few occasions upon which the 
General Assembly was permitted to do business; and thus 

VOL. II — 2 T 



642 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

the assimilation of the whole province to the one system 
which prevailed, in the low country was not effected, and 
the Revolution coming on found the province in an in- 
choate state — a condition in which it was to remain until 
1790, when a new constitution was to be formed. Unfor- 
tunately, even by this constitution, the difference in the 
organization of the two sections was maintained, the low 
country retaining the parish system and the up country 
adopting the judicial district as the basis of representation 
— a difference which was to remain in the organic law of 
the State until it was reconstructed after the great war 
between the States. 

The act of 1768 establishing the circuit courts had been 
returned with the Royal disapproval, and in July, 1769, 
the Assembly made another effort to secure the indepen- 
dence of the judiciary, while providing courts for the 
province ; but the Governor refused his assent to the bill, 
and yielding then to the urgent appeals of the people of 
the up country, the Assembly, on the 29th of July, 1769, 
passed a third act without the provision in regard to the 
tenure of the judges. The representatives of the low 
country in the Assembly forbore the struggle for the 
independence of their judiciary in order to afford imme- 
diate relief to the upper. The act was ratified by the 
Board in England on the 25th of November, 1769; but by 
its terms it was not to go into effect until the court-houses 
and jails were all built. Another difficulty ensued, re- 
garding the means of building the court-houses ; but at 
length, on the 11th of May, 1772, the Grazette announces 
that all the court-houses are built except that at George- 
town, which was in a state of great forwardness, and ex- 
pressed the hope that the courts would soon be opened. 
His Excellency, in a proclamation of the 19th of May, ful- 
filled the hope, and announced that the Provost Marshal's 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 643 

office was abolished, and that at the next meeting of the 
court sheriffs woukl be appointed for the several precincts 
of Charlestown, Beaufort, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Cam- 
den, Cheraws, and Ninety-six. These sheriffs were ap- 
pointed on the 4th of June, 1772; but it was not until 
the 5th of November, 1773, that the Chief Justice and 
Assistant Justices set out to open the courts in the pre- 
cincts to which they had respectively been assigned. As 
it happened, these courts were opened just in time to 
afford the opportunity of William Henry Drayton's famous 
charges to the grand juries, he having volunteered to serve 
in the absence of one of the judges ; and of the present- 
ments of the grand juries themselves, which so aroused 
the spirit of resistance to the Royal government, and 
enlisted so many of the inhabitants of the interior in the 
cause of liberty. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

1769-70 

While the legislature had been thus engaged and the 
Commons' House had been so stoutly asserting its rights in 
the matters of the Massachusetts and Virginia circulars and 
the quartering of troops, and endeavoring on the one hand 
to provide for courts for the upper part of the province, 
while on the other it secured the independence of the ju-. 
diciary, there had been much excitement and commotion 
among the people in Charlestown and its vicinity. Early 
in the winter of 1769 the subject of non-importation, as had 
been resolved upon in New York, had been discussed, and 
schemes of economy, of industry, and for the encourage- 
ment of home manufactures had been proposed and to some 
extent resolved upon; but no very definite or decided 
action had been taken, as conservative men still hoped for 
the repeal of the Revenue acts, which they were led to be- 
lieve might be made by Parliament. In May the accounts 
from London dissipated all such hopes. The agents of the 
colonies thought it necessary to defer presenting petitions 
upon the subject. All accounts agreed that there would 
be no repeal of the Revenue acts at that session of Parlia- 
ment; some, however, hoped there might be the next 
winter, provided the people in America would keep quiet 
until then. But those on the other side of the Atlantic 
who held these views were mistaken ; and on this side 
many had been aroused, and were impatient of the longer 
continuajice of the acts. Besides, it was urged, Massa- 

644 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 645 

chusetts and New York had adopted non-importation 
resolutions, and was South Carolina to desert them? 
Whether the people generally were ready to adopt the 
plan of non-importation in order to force Parliament to 
repeal the Revenue acts may well be doubted, as the 
measures taken by the party for action were so calculated 
to intimidate all opposition as to leave little freedom of 
action or even of expression of difference. There were, 
however, some of the best and truest of the people who 
would not submit in silence to what they regarded the 
tyrannical action of an irresponsible combination. 

It was the mechanics again who were the first to move.^ 
On June the 29th it was announced by advertisement in 
the Grazette that the mechanics of Charlestown, who had 
their own and posterity's interest at heart, were de- 
sired to meet under the Liberty Tree on Monday next 
at four o'clock. By another announcement in that paper 
it was stated that a meeting of the merchants would 
be held at Mr. Dillon's tavern at the same hour. The 
result of these meetings was the publication of a proposed 
form of agreement, which every one was called upon to 
subscribe under the penalty of ostracism. The agreement 
recited that the subscribers, his Majesty's dutiful and lov- 
ing subjects, the inhabitants of South Carolina, sensibly 
affected by the great prejudice done to Great Britain, and 
the abject and wretched condition to which the British 
colonies were reduced by the several acts lately passed, 
by some of which moneys were wrung from them without 
their consent, or even being represented, and applied by 
the ministry without regard to the real interest of Great 
Britain, and almost totally to the support of new created 
commissioners of customs, place men, parasitical and 
novel ministerial officers ; and by others of which acts the 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, June 8, 1769. 



646 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

colonists were not only deprived of those invaluable rights, 
trial by their peers and the common law, but also made 
subject to the arbitrary and oppressive proceedings of the 
civil law; and finding that the most dutiful and loyal 
petitions from the colonies had been rejected with con- 
tempt, so that no relief could be expected from that method 
of proceeding, and fully convinced of the necessity of 
stimulating their fellow-citizens in Great Britain to aid 
them in their distress, and of their joining with the rest 
of the colonies in some other legal and vigorous methods 
that might procure such relief, which they believed might 
be more effectually promoted by strict economy and by 
encouraging the manufactures of America in general, and 
of the province in particular, they whose names were there 
underwritten did therefore solemnly promise and agree 
that until the colonies should be restored to their former 
freedom by the repeal of the objectionable acts, they would 
strictly abide by the following resolutions: — 

I. They would encourage and promote to the utmost of 
their power the use of North American manufactures in 
general and those of this province in particular. 

II. That they would under no pretence whatsoever 
import into the province any of the manufactures of Great 
Britain or other goods and wares usually received from 
thence other than such as had been shipped in consequence 
of former orders to their correspondents in Great Britain, 
excepting only negro cloths, Dufifie blankets, osnaburgs, 
plantation and workmen's tools, powder, lead, shot, wool 
cards, card ware, printed books, and pamphlets. 

III. That they would use the utmost economy in their 
persons, families, houses, and furniture ; particularly that 
they would use no mourning nor give gloves and scarfs at 
funerals. 

Lastly, they would look on every inhabitant of the 



UNDER THE ROYAL. GOVERNMENT 647 

colony who refused or neglected to sign the agreement 
within one month from its date as no friend to the interest 
of the colony; and they would upon no account at any 
time purchase from or sell to such person any goods or 
merchandise whatsoever. 

The Gazette published this form of agreement at its head 
in large and conspicuous ty[)e, and kept it there for many 
issues. It announced that so thoroughly was the body of 
the inhabitants convinced of the necessity of entering into 
an agreement, that there were no less than twenty-five 
representatives in their private capacity amongst the first 
signers, so that to them might be ascribed the honor of 
taking the lead in this most momentous affair. And 
although, continues that journal, this colony might be last 
to come into a measure of the sort, yet we are convinced 
that, notwithstanding the invidious artifices of a few, the 
subscription to the agreement will make as respectable an 
appearance as any in America. Had that journal been 
gifted with a prophetic spirit, it might have foretold that 
South Carolina, the last to come into so impracticable a 
scheme, would be the last to persist in its enforcement. 

But whether wise or unwise, the measure was not 
allowed to go without earnest opposition — an opposition 
which led to a heated and unbecoming controversy in the 
papers of the day. On the 22d of June, a week before 
the meeting under the Liberty Tree, there appeared in the 
Gazette a communication over the signature of "Pro Grege 
et Rege," urging the adoption of non-importation and pro- 
posing a form similar to that adopted, in which the writer, 
while addressing all other classes of citizens, had spoken 
very disrespectfully of the importers, saying that many oi 
them were but strangers of a few years' standing in the 
province, and asking, had they shown or attempted to 
show anything but an altogether confined regard to them- 



648 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

selves and their own private interest?^ To this, one 
writing as " The Merchayits of Charlestown " replied on the 
13th of July, resenting the imputations, and reminding 
'"''Pro Grege et Rege''^ that to the merchants alone was 
owing the export of so great a part of the rice, by which 
means the price had been supported, to the great emolu- 
ment of the landowners. "The being taxed or having 
duties imposed on us by a body in which we are not rep- 
resented," said " TA^ Merchants of Charlestowti," ^^ is the 
foundation of the dispute between Great Britain and 
America. We allow the latter to have just cause of com- 
plaint; have not the body of merchants equal reason to 
complain when an attempt is made that strikes at the wel- 
fare of each individual? Sign or die^ was the motto on a 
late extraordinary occasion ! Sign or be ruined is the motto 
now! It is an unjust attempt of one part of the com- 
munity, whose particular wants are already supplied, to 
throw a burden on the rest more grievous than ever was 
conceived by the most arbitrary minister of the most 
despotic King." "If," continued the writer, "hardships 
must be borne for the general good, each individual should 
be consulted, and such a plan adopted as would make the 
burthen equal. By the engagement lately entered into, a 
plan of economy is provided that must necessarily increase 
the landholder's estates. Such articles as they and the 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, June 22, 1769. 

2 This allusion is to the motto ^'■Join or Die,'''' common in the northern 
colonies during the agitation against the Stamp act in 1765. Bancroft, 
vol. V (ed. 1857), 360. A frontispiece to Tlie Constitutional Courant 
represented a snake cut in pieces, with the initial letters of the several 
colonies, from Nev? England to South Carolina, affixed to each piece. 
Such an emblem might not have been deemed in all points complimen- 
tary, but amends were made by the motto ; it stood thus. Join ok Die ! 
Annual Register, 1765, part I, p. 50; Dr. Gordon's Hist, of the Am. 
Bevolution, vol. I, 189; Mahon's Hist, of Englaml, vol. V, 133, 134. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 649 

mechanics indispensably want are allowed to be imported. 
These two parts of the community are provided for, while 
the third is subjected to infinite hardships and distress." 

This writer had certainly discussed the matter with 
good temper, sound logic, and great force. Another, " Pro 
Lihertate et Lege^^'' came forward on the 13th, and with 
less good taste, but certainly not without provocation, 
assailed " Pro Crrege et Reye " personally. If he was not 
mistaken, "P?-o G-rege et Rege"" had been himself an 
importer of European goods ; many other gentlemen of 
the first consequence and character in the province began 
to make their estates in a mercantile way and by degrees 
came to be great planters; but unfortunately in this "Pro 
G-rege et Rege " had failed, forhe_jieith£r- made a great 
and rich n_ierchant nor was possessed of large plantations. 
He calls the importers new-comers and strangers, and yet 
many of them were nearly connected with the learned 
writer himself; and some of the sons of those who began 
in a mercantile way are now possessed of large plantations. 
This writer concluded by urging his countrymen not to 
enter upon any schemes or resolutions before they had 
deliberately considered what might be the consequences of 
their proceedings, nor to suffer themselves to be deceived 
by false appearances or led away by notions of men con- 
sulting their own interests, while endeavoring to make 
the whole world think they would be martyrs for the 
wrong done to and the violated rights and privileges of 
the country. The allusion in this letter points to Christo- 
pher Gadsden as the author of the communication signed 
"Pro Grege et Rege" On the 20th '' PJiilnnthropos'' en- 
ters the controversy with an attack upon '"'' Pro Lihertate 
et Lege " still more personal than that upon " Pro Grege 
et Rege^''' and asks "For God's sake what kind of liberty 
can any imagine this gentleman means but the liberty of 



650 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

saying with impunity disagreeable things?" To this the 
assailed "Pro Libertate,''^ etc., replies in a paper which 
Mr. Timothy, the publisher of the Gazette, very properly 
required to be put in as an advertisement, and in which a 
reward of 20s. was offered to any person who would take 
*''' Philanthropos" to the warden of the workhouse to 
receive the punishment allotted to misbehaving slaves. 
We turn from the perusal of this earl^^ political con- 
troversy in the newspapers of South Carolina with no 
pride or satisfaction in the tastes and courtesy of our fore- 
fathers in public discussion. We read of no duel or street 
fight growing out of these amenities. 

A general meeting of the inhabitants of Charlestown 
was held on the 22d of July, when the form of the agree- 
ment was enlarged so as to extend the prohibition of for- 
bidden articles, not only from Great Britain, but also from 
Holland or any other place, and also to extend it to pro- 
hibit the importation of negroes. This last extension of 
the agreement seems to have had other and stronger 
grounds for its adoption than those urged against the 
revenue laws generally.^ 

At this meeting of the 22d of July, Mr. Gadsden read 
the new form of agreement which was proposed by a com- 
mittee of the merchants, once for the information of the 
numerous body assembled, and then read them a second 
time, paragraph by paragraph, so, it was said, to allow 
objection, if any there were, to be offered; but the whole, 
the Grazette gravely tells, was immediately approved with 
an unanimity scarce to be paralleled. The merchants 
having at their previous meeting appointed a committee 
of thirteen gentlemen for the purpose of doing whatever 
might be further necessary to give form to the association, 
a similar committee of the mechanics, and another of 

1 See ante., chapter XVII. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



651 



planters, were nominated, and a general committee of 
thirty-nine was thus established, ^ with Mr. John Neuf- 
ville as chairman. 

This measure, whether or not really supported by the 
unbiassed judgment and wishes of the people generalh^, 
as claimed by the Ciazette, was not allowed to pass with- 
out strong and vehement protest. Mr. William Henry 
Drayton and Mr. William Wragg were not to be silenced 
by the apparent unanimity of public opinion, or by the 
threat of contempt with which the resolutions declared 
that those who would not submit should be treated. Mr. 
Wragg, as we have already seen, had at least the courage 
of his opinions, and for them was to suffer exile and to 
perish at sea. Mr. Drayton was a much younger man ; at 
this time he was twenty-seven years of age. Born at 
Drayton Hall on the Ashley, within a few miles of Charles- 
town, he had been sent, as many of the youths of the colony 
were at the time, to England for his education. He had 
gone under the care of Chief Justice Pinckney, in com- 
pany with his sons, Charles Cotesworth and Thomas 
Pinckney. He had pursued his education at Westminster 



1 The members of these committees were as follows : — 



Planters 
Thomas Lynch 
William Williamson 
Thomas Ferguson 
Benjamin Elliot 
John McKenzie 
Peter Porcher 
Barnard Elliot 
Benjamin Huger 
"William Moultrie 
John Parker 
Charles Elliot 
Daniel Legare 
Isaac Lesesne 



Merchants 
John Neufville 
J. Edwards 
Jo. Laurens 
Daniel D'Oyley 
Thomas Sherley 
Peter Bacot 
John Ward 
J. Ab. Hall 
John Coram 
Andrew Lord 
Aaron Locock 
Roger Smith 
Wm. Price 



Mechanics 
Daniel Cannon 
John Price 
Calo Ashe 
John FuUerton 
Joseph Veree 
Barn. Buckman 
Josei^h Dill 
Simon Berwick 
John Mathews 
Theo. Treyvant 
Thomas Young 
Tunis Teburt 
William Trusler 



652 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

school until the fall of 1761, when he was removed to 
the University of Oxford, where he remained for nearly 
three years, when recalled by his father. In 1764 he mar- 
ried Miss Golightly, a lady of fortune — a fact which was 
to be thrown up to him in the bitter controversy in which 
he was about to engage. ^ He was ultimate]}^ to espouse 
the cause of the colonies, and to become one of the leaders 
in the Revolution, and Chief Justice under the new gov- 
ernment; but at this time he was an ardent supporter of 
the Royal government, and against this movement, which 
he regarded as a conspiracy in law, unwise, unjust, and 
tyrannical, he was opposed with his whole soul; but, it is 
to be added, with more zeal than discretion. 

On July the 28th, over the signature of ''''Freeman''^ in 
an article in the Gazette^ he violently assailed the resolu- 
tions of the 22d of July. "As a tree is known by its 
fruit," he wrote, "so the author flatters himself that this 
production amounts to a sufficient evidence that he is as 
true a friend of the constitutio7i of his country as any of 
those gentlemen who assembled under the Liberty Tree. 
Determined to possess his own sentiments and to subject 
them to no vain demagogue^ he will make use of that free- 
dom which is the characteristic of the British subject, etc." 
This allusion was to Christopher Gadsden. Regardless, 
he wrote, of whom his paper might affect, he took the 
liberty thus to expose a patriot to public view and show 
either the wickedness of his heart or the weakness of his 
head. He implied that the zeal of this patriot was only to 
acquire some lucrative post. "To stigmatize a man," he 
said, " even the meanest in a community, and brand him 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, March 81, 1764. " On Thursday last William Henry 
Drayton, Esq., son of John Drayton, Esq., was married to Miss Dorothy 
Golightly, a very amiable young lady and au heiress of great fortune and 
merit," 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 658 

with the infamous name of an enemy of his country ^^^ as 
the resolutions undertook to do, " can be legally done by 
no authority^ but by that of the voice of the legislature^ 
and no person but a traitor or a madman would think of 
any other." In the same strain he continued, advising 
that the person to whom he alluded, who was understood 
to be Christopher Gadsden, should be lodged in the mad- 
house, and maintained there at least during the ensuing 
change and full of the moon, at the public expense. This 
was surely belittling a great occasion, and giving no 
promise of the great ability or style of his famous charges 
to the grand juries and letter to the Congress by which he 
was afterward to contribute so much to rouse and assure 
the people in behalf of liberty. It was indeed a grave 
and serious question whether the colony of South Carolina 
had as yet received any such wrong at the hands of the 
mother country as warranted this measure of non- 
importation. Granting the occasion for it, it was an 
equally grave and serious question whether such a volun- 
tary agreement could possibly be enforced? Whether it 
would not cause falsehood and evasion on the one hand, 
and inevitable suspicion of evasion on the other; whether 
it was possible to enforce by mere promises, though given 
upon honor, what the most stringent penal revenue laws 
could not effect ? But it was a far graver and more serious 
question whether the attempt thus to crush out private 
opinion and to intimidate any who might conscientiously 
differ was not inflicting a far greater wrong upon the 
people than Parliament could do by taxing them even 
without representation. Whether in denying the right 
of individual conscience and judgment and freedom of 
action they were not themselves violating the dearest con- 
stitutional rights of British freemen in a far greater degree 
than the ministry could possibly do by enforcing the 



654 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

obnoxious Revenue laws? Whether it was worse to be 
carried to England for trial than to be condemned under 
the Liberty Tree at home without? Mr. Drayton failed 
even to suggest any such consideration, but indulged 
liimself in a personal attack upon Mr. Gadsden ; and Mr. 
Gadsden followed in the same vein. In a long and sneer- 
ing communication in the Gazette, Mr. Gadsden answers 
Mr. Drayton. He treats him as a child, with contempt; 
charges him with falsehood, declaring that he is not to be 
believed even when he accidentally sj^eaks the truth. We 
read this letter with great disappointment. Hoping to 
find from the recognized leader of so important and serious 
a movement explanation and justification of the measure, 
we find nothing but personal controversy; and Mr. Dray- 
ton replies in the same spirit and the same tone. At this 
point Mr. John McKenzie enters the contest under the 
signature of '"'' Liber tas et Natale Solum.''^ His style is 
scarcely an improvement upon that either of Mr. Drayton 
or of Mr. Gadsden, and he adds little to the argument. 

Another meeting was held on the 4th of September 
under the Liberty Tree, when it was determined that the 
resolutions should be strictly adhered to, and the general 
committee should be instructed to take every necessary 
and justifiable step for preventing the least deviation 
therefrom. A list was made at the same time of the 
town's inhabitants that had subscribed to the resolutions, 
and it was claimed that but few names were wantingf. 
The subscription, it was determined, should continue open 
until the 7th, and then, if there should remain any non- 
subscribers, their names should be made publicly known. 
On the 14th the Gazette announces that in the whole town 
there were but twenty-one non-subscribers, exclusive of 
Crown officers, and that the names of these had been made 
public in handbills, agreeable to the resolution of the 4th. 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 655 

The lists of non-subscribers published in the handbills 
included the names of Mr. Wragg and Mr. Drayton. On 
the 4th Mr. Wragg, in a paper remarkable for the times 
for the calmness and temperateness of its tone, protested 
against this action. Addressing Mr. Timothy, the editor 
of the Gazette^ he wrote: "As I conceive your paper to 
have at least as extensive a circulation as the handbills 
that have lately been distributed about, I take the liberty 
through 3^our means of appearing before the public as one 
called upon to speak a word in vindication of myself. My 
name I am told is inserted in the list of non-subscribers 
to the self-denying ordinance or resolutions ; with what 
view or intention, I neither care nor inquire after. The 
authors will pardon my vanity in considering it, perhaps 
contrary to their design, as an honorable certificate of me; 
by representing me as one upon whom neither fear, in- 
terest, or the prevailing desire and seeming security of 
swimming with the stream could operate to do violence 
to his judgment. The freedom of the constitution and 
genuine undepraved text of the law will support my claim 
to an indisputable right of withholding my assent to propo- 
sitions I disapprove of, and which are in their nature alto- 
gether discretionary." . . . "Where," he asked, "is the 
reason, the justice, the charity, in locking up my property 
with endeavors to force a compliance or starve me ? Had I 
no other resources than what a plantation affords, I would 
endure everything rather than have the freedom of my 
will or understanding limited or directed by the humors or 
capricious proscriptions of men not having authority." . . . 
"Let me add," he wrote, "that I have not forgotten, and 
therefore am not ashamed of acknowledging, that I dare 
not oppose acts of Parliament made not for the purpose of 
raising a revenue, but to regulate the commerce of Great 
Britain and her dominions, and falling neither within 



656 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the rules laid clown by Lord Chatham and others, who 
allo^v only the partial supremacy of Parliament over the 
colonies." These measures, the resolutions as to non- 
importation, he thought injudicious, "because they fur- 
nished the ministry with an opportunity, were they of the 
disposition imputed to them, of making the very articles 
comprehended in the exceptions, admitted to be such as 
we cannot do without, come to us upon much worse terms 
than we now have them." Mr. Wragg added, under his 
signature, a note courteously expressing his disbelief that 
the names in the list published were the only residents in 
Charlestown who had not signed the resolutions. 

Mr. Drayton declared that instead of having been morti- 
fied by having seen his name on the handbills, he confessed 
that he was pleased with the circumstance and considered 
it as public testimony of his resolution and integrity. 
Then throwing away his scabbard he proceeds to the attack : 
"And having now withstood the brunt of the committee's 
fury, I think 'tis my turn to advance and charge, ASPICE 
NUM MAGE SIT NOSTRUM PENETRABILE 
TELUM.^ The prqfanum vulyus is a species of mankind 
which I respect as I ought. But I see no reason why I 
should allow my opinion to be controlled by theirs." He 
was, he said, as capable of judging for himself as those 
gently were for themselves, and he would allow of no en- 
croachment upon his rights. A man who could "boast of 
having received a liberal education," and men who had read 
a little, it mattered not how they had acquired their knowl- 
edge, should have made " a proper use of their advantages 
and not have consulted de arduis reipuhlicce with men who 
never were in any way to study, or to advise upon any 
points, but rules how to cut up a beast in the market to the 
best advantage, cobble an old shoe in the neatest manner, 
1 Virgil, JEneid, x. 481. " See whether ours be (not) the keener dart." 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 657 

or to build a necessary house. Nature never intended 
such men should be profound politicians or able statesmen, 
and unless a man makes a proper use of his reading, he is 
but upon a level with those who never did read. From 
which reasoning I conclude that in point of knowledge all 
the members of the committee are upon a level with each 
other. A learned body of statesmen truly! " 

After much more in the same style, Mr. Drayton in the 
conclusion of his paper rises somewhat to the dignity of 
the occasion, declaring that he should act to the best of 
his abilities and judgment in support of the constitution 
in the state in which it had been handed down to him 
from his progenitors ; and hoped that in every circum- 
stance of life he should act with consistency, with loyalty 
to his King, reverence to his native country, and with 
charity to all men. The time was soon to come when one 
of these sentiments, at least, he was to repudiate — that 
of loyalty to his King. 

As was to have been expected, this intemperate and 
insolent attack upon the composition of the general com- 
mittee, as they styled themselves, brought out an answer 
from the mechanics in that body. They replied in the 
Gazette of the 5th of October, ridiculing Mr. Drayton's 
pretensions and classical quotations. They asked him 
whether he really claimed any merit for possessing an 
estate not obtained by his industry, and recommending 
him to the same asylum to which he had suggested that 
Mr. Gadsden should be sent, in which, they added, he 
might be allowed to amuse himself with making and 
wearing civet crowns of straw for having saved his fellow- 
subjects from destruction. Then followed long and tire- 
some disquisitions by Mr. Gadsden and Mr. MoKenzie on 
the one side, and Mr. Drayton on the other. These papers 
do not afford pleasant reading. What little of argument 

VOL. II — 2 u 



658 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

there is in them is oveiladen with classical quotations, 
confused by personal allusions spun out in copious lan- 
guage, and on the part of one writer in not always good 
English. They fail utterly to rise to the height of the 
argument the occasion demanded. 

In the meanwhile the committee pursued their inqui- 
sitional business. They advertised one McDonnell, who 
kept a store in Elliot Street, for offering for sale a parcel 
of goods which he asserted he had laid in the May before, 
and which were therefore admitted to sale by the terms of 
the resolutions; but the general committee inform the 
public that McDonnell is a transient person, and that there- 
fore no subscriber could by the terms of the resolutions 
purchase any goods from him except coals and salt. 
McDonnell replied that he was not a transient person, that 
he had lived thirteen months in Carolina, had come with 
a design to settle in Charlestown, and had only gone 
home for his health, and begged that this might be taken 
into consideration. He said that he had offered to sign 
the resolutions, but that the committee would not allow 
him to do so, although two-thirds of them were of opinion 
that his case was clear. He very naturally thought him- 
self injured, and that the committee's purpose had been 
to hurt him in his trade. The committee were relentless. 
There was no withdrawal of the boycott in his case. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

1769-70 

The General Assembly met on the 23d of November, 
1769, the clay to which it had been prorogued by the Lieu- 
tenant Governor. On the 30th Patrick Calhoun and 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney took their seats. Mr. Cal- 
houn — the father of Carolina's great statesman — was the 
first of the Scotch-Irish settlers of the upper part of the 
State to enter its legislature. He was returned as a 
member of Prince William's Parish, which, bounding on 
the southwest on the Savannah, ran indefinitel}^ up that 
river, and thus included the Scotch-Irish and Huguenots 
who had settled at Long Canes, in what is now Abbeville 
County. As we have seen, it was only in this parish that 
the back settlers had been allowed to vote; but in this 
parish they were not only allowed to take part in the elec- 
tion, but to send one of themselves as a member of the 
Assembly, and in him to establish a name which has 
become indissolubly associated with that of Carolina. 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, whose epitaph was to be 
written "One of the Founders of the American Republic," 
appeared as a representative from St. John's, Colleton, the 
parish which had returned William Wragg but the year 
before, though he had moved to substitute the name of his 
Majesty George III in the resolution for the erection of 
a monument to Chatham. Mr. Pinckney was at this time 
but twenty-three years of age. He had just returned home 
from England, where, as we have seen, he had been carried 
by his father, the late Chief Justice, together with his 

659 



660 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

brother Thomas and William Henry Drayton, for their 
education. He had studied in the Temple, and had been 
admitted to the bar there in 1764. 

On the 5th of December Mr. Drayton presented a peti- 
tion to the House, in which he set forth that he was a free- 
holder in divers parts of the province, and by birth a 
freeman under the British government. In these charac- 
ters he claimed an inherent right to lay before the House, 
who were the representatives of the freeholders and free- 
men in the province, a representation of such injuries 
to and violation of constitutional rights and privileges 
as the spirit of the law was at that juncture too feeble and 
weak to redress. That a majority of the judges, — that is, 
the assistant judges, natives of the colony, appointed by 
the Governor, — by signing and acceding to certain reso- 
lutions and solemn engagements of the 22d of July last, 
had thereby disqualified themselves from sitting as judges 
on any action which might be brought by reason of those 
resolutions, and so general had been the subscription to 
those resolutions that any jury which might be drawn to 
try such a suit must in all probability consist entirely of 
men of the same disqualification. That having no other 
means of procuring protection, he petitioned that the 
Commons would vouchsafe to protect him in the enjoy- 
ment of those rights to which he had a claim by his birth, 
and which he merited by his due submission to the 
laws. 

He set forth that by the last of the resolutions the sub- 
scribers illegally confederated and conspired to distress 
such as should not accede to them within one month by 
not purchasing such commodities as they might have for 
sale. That this measure had compelled great numbers 
to sign the resolutions ratlier tlian by refusing to expose 
themselves to ruin. But that he with many others had 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 661 

determined, from principles of loyalty to their King, and 
respect to the laws of the land, to expose themselves to 
every difficulty which might befall them in consequence 
of the operation of those resolutions rather than by acced- 
ing to them to make themselves instrumental in violating 
the civil liberties of freemen. The memorial went on to 
argue that to be debarred by any other authority than that 
of the constitutional law of the land from selling any 
part of a man's property was a flagrant violation of the 
civil liberties of a freeman and subversive of one of the 
great advantages of living in society as a good citizen. 
That in consequence of the resolutions and publication 
of his name, his commodities, which were ready for sale, 
remained upon his hands at great risk and heavy expense ; 
and merchants who had approved of the quality of his 
elTects and treated for a quantity and price, as soon as 
they learned whose property they were, declined any 
further bargain for the purchase of them because of the 
resolutions. He submitted his case to .the House for such 
redress as to their wisdom might seem proper; but he did 
not indicate what measures the House could adopt for his 
relief. 

The petition was presented to the Clerk, to be by him 
presented to the Speaker. It met the fate which no doubt 
Mr. Drayton anticipated. The Speaker was asked as to 
the contents before it was read, and replied that it con- 
tained a representation of injuries received in consequence 
of certain resolutions, and a prayer for redress. Upon 
this the question was put whether the petition should be 
received, and it was refused. Mr. Drayton was obliged 
to content himself with the publication of his petition in 
the Gazette^ which Mr. Timothy, the publisher, kindly 
allowed, together with a protest by him that the right to 
petition implied a right to be heaid ; and that without this 



662 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

right to be heard, it was in vain that the subject should 
petition for a redress of grievances. 

On the 8th of December the House passed an order on 
Jacob Motte, the public Treasurer, for the sum of £10,500 
provincial currency, equal to X1500 sterling, to be remitted 
to Great Britain " for assisting in the support of the just 
and constitutional rights of America." Upon this Mr. 
Drayton, in a last paper in this controversy, over the signa- 
ture of '"'' Freeman,'''' wrote in the Gazette,^ that as it always 
gave him pleasure to congratulate his friends upon the 
prosperous situation of their affairs, he could not omit 
this fair opportunity to felicitate his fellow-citizens upon 
the sudden increase of wealth of this province. For cer- 
tainly, he said, the public finances must be in a flourishing 
condition, or their economic purse keepers and representa- 
tives would not in a manner almost without hesitation 
have bestowed the sum of £1500 sterling on charity upon 
the application of a private gentleman in London, which 
charitable supply was remitted to defray the bills of a cer- 
tain club of Patriots at the London Tavern, among whom 
he had heard that the celebrated Samuel Vaughan was a 
member of no little consequence. Mr. Timothy was very 
indignant at this letter, as calling in question the truth 
of the statement of the Gazette on the 9th, that a reso- 
lution had been entered in the House that the public 
Treasurer advance the sum of £1500 sterling to be imme- 
diately remitted to Great Britain for the support of the 
just and constitutional rights of the people of that King- 
dom and America. The Journal of the House undoubt- 
edly sustained Mr. Timothy to the letter of his statement; 
but, as Mr. Timothy must have very well known, Mr. 
Drayton in his statement had also fully adhered to the 
truth — a truth which was commonly known. The House 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, December 28, 1769. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 663 

had directed the public Treasurer to pay this .£1500 into 
the hands of a committee consisting of the Speaker, Peter 
Manigault, Christopher Gadsden, John Rutledge, James 
Parsons, Thomas Ferguson, Benjamin Dart, and Thomas 
Lynch. These gentlemen the next day, the 9th of December, 
1769, addressed a letter to Messrs. Hanckney & Partners, 
French Street, London, saying that the Assembly, having 
yesterday in a full house voted £10,500 of their currency 
to be remitted to Great Britain for the support of the con- 
stitutional rights and liberties of the people of Great 
Britain and America, and referred it to them to carry this 
resolution into execution; and, they continue, "we being 
very certain that it is the intention to present this sum to 
the "supporters of the Bill of Rights" to assist them in 
carrying on their great and good intentions do enclose you 
the following bills of exchange for X1500 sterling. ^ The 
" Society of Supporters of the Bill of Rights " was nothing 
more than an association to raise means to pay the debts 
of John Wilkes and to provide for his support and his 
expenses while imprisoned. It was formed of a number 
of members of Parliament, merchants, tradesmen, and 
others with the professed view of supporting Mr. Wilkes. 
They assumed the name of "Supporters of the Bill of 
Rights," and sent out circulars appealing to the people to 
raise an effectual barrier against oppression, and to rescue 
Mr. Wilkes from his present incumbrances and to render 
him easy and independent. 

The Lieutenant Governor immediately reported the 
action of the House to Lord Hillsborough, sending him a 
copy of the order, and saying that as no particular use or 
agent is mentioned in the journals, it was probable that it 
was intended for the purposes of the supporters of the Bill 
of Rights in London, from whose committee a solicitation 

1 Life of Wilkes Almun, vol. V, 42. 



664 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for some aid had been sent to this province and kept secret 
until the moment it was presented. Whether this applica- 
tion was made alone to this province his Lordship would 
learn from other Governors. In explanation of the way in 
which the order was made, and of his Honor's inability to 
prevent it, the Lieutenant Governor wrote an interesting 
account of the way in which the custom had grown up by 
which the House of Commons thus borrowed money from 
the Treasurer upon its promise to replace. 

At this point Mr. Drayton gave up the contest and left 
the country in disgust. On the 4th of January, 1770, the 
Gazette announced that the ship London, Alexander Curl- 
ing, Master, sailed yesterday, having on board one of the 
richest cargoes shipped since the peace, and after enumer- 
ating many articles which it contained, it adds in con- 
spicuous type, '''' Returned Goods'' — that is, goods which 
the committee of the Liberty Tree would not allow to be 
sold — "awe? William Henry Drayton, Esq., AutJior 
of several late Political Pieces signed Freeman." In this 
contemptuous manner was the departure of Mr. Drayton 
announced ; but the day was soon to come when all this 
was to be forgotten, and the true patriot who now left his 
people in ignominy was to be chosen as a member of their 
Council of Safety, then to act as their chief executive, 
and then to be their first Chief Justice under their new 
government, which he was to be most influential in estab- 
lishing. But for the present, flushed with excitement and 
reckless in the exercise of their unaccustomed and irre- 
sponsible power, the party under the Liberty Tree would 
listen to no one who dared to question their wisdom or 
authority. 

On the 24th of January another meeting was held under 
the Liberty Tree,^ and Christopher Gadsden was chosen 

1 &'u. Ca. Gazette, February 1, 1770. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 665 

to preside. Mr. Neufville, chairman of the general com- 
mittee, laid before the people the particular matters they 
had in charge. First there was the case of Mr. Alexander 
Gillon. He had imported one hundred pipes of wine 
in the ship Peter and Ann from Teneriffe. The wines, 
though ordered before the agreement, had not arrived 
until the 19th of December, and the committee had there- 
fore required Mr. Gillon to store them; but he had de- 
clined doing so, preferring to submit the consideration of 
the particular hardships of his case to a meeting of the 
non-importers. He flattered himself that upon a due con- 
sideration of the circumstances he would be allowed to sell 
the wines. Mr. Gillon, it was said, was heard with great 
attention, and when the matter was fully discussed, the 
question was put whether, considering the particular cir- 
cumstances of the case, he might be allowed to sell the 
wines. Those who were of that opinion were desired to 
declare it by holding up their hands ; but not a single 
hand was raised, and Mr. Gillon was required to sign an 
engagement that he would store them until a general 
importation would take place. 

Mr. Neufville, chairman of the committee, then brought 
to the attention of the meeting that the purpose of the 
resolutions had been in some measure defeated by masters 
of vessels and other transient persons being at liberty to 
dispose of whatever goods they imported, if they could find 
puichasers. Several persons had availed themselves of 
this, and some goods had been clandestinely disposed of 
and purchased, and others positively refused to store or 
ship goods thus imported. Whereupon it was at once 
determined to put a stop to this scandalous and surrepti- 
tious traflic, and amidst great applause it was resolved 
that the merchants should enter another resolution not to 
have any dealings whatever, now or hereafter, — except in 



666 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

particular cases which sliould be absolutely unavoidable, 
— with or for any master of vessels or transient persons 
who should refuse to store or reship the goods by them 
imported if required. How Mr. Parsons and the other 
lawyers must have laughed in their sleeves at the strin- 
gency of the new resolution which was to be enforced 
in all cases except when '"''absolutely unavoidable.'''' The 
planters were also required to enter an additional engage- 
ment to forbid their factors to sell rice or other produce 
to such persons on any pretence whatever; and the general 
committee were instructed to publish the names of all 
persons acting contrary to the general sense of the peo- 
ple in these particulars. The last matter Mr. Neufville 
brought to the attention of the meeting was that three 
tanners had declined to sign an engagement regarding the 
exportation of rawhides, whereupon the committee was 
instructed to act upon the matter at their discretion. 

The Gazette observes that it was worthy of notice that 
the several weighty matters laid before the meeting were 
discussed with the greatest calmness and decencjs attended 
with a solemnity and regularity that would have reflected 
honor upon any body of men whatever; and it mentions 
as evidence of the fixed determination of the people to 
continue free from the smallest violation 'of the resolutions, 
that a parcel of rice in which the owner's name, a non- 
subscriber, had been "dubb'* out," had been found, and 
the sale prohibited; and that Messrs. Cogdell and Fordyce 
had been under the necessity of publishing an advertise- 
ment contradicting an ill-natured report that they had 
undertaken to receive and sell the produce of non-sub- 
scribers. It stated that there was then, the 1st of February, 
1770, actually in store, to remain until a general importa- 
tion should take place, several thousand pounds sterling 
worth of goods imported contrary to the intent and mean- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 667 

ing of the resolutions. Mr. Drayton had left the country, 
and Mr. Wragg had retired to his barony in despair. There 
was no one left to protest against this tyranny of an irre- 
sponsible body exercising this monstrous power in the 
name of Liberty. 

The monotony of these non-importation meetings was to 
some extent broken by the coming of the day of the 18th of 
April, on which John Wilkes was to be released from his 
imprisonment, and which was of course to be celebrated, 
and in the celebration of which there was to be an indica- 
tion of the same intolerant spirit which was showing itself 
in some classes of the people. St. Michael's bells were 
rung, and there were abundant demonstrations of joy by 
several assemblies at different houses, particularly by the 
club "Number Forty-five," above one hundred members 
of which, as loyal subjects, the Gazette takes care to men- 
tion, as any his Majesty King George the Third had 
throughout his dominions, and amongst whom there were 
many gentlemen of rank and property in the province, met 
at Mr. Robert Dillon's, where they had a most elegant enter- 
tainment, conducted by six most elegant stewards, and 
spent the evening in the most orderly manner, and of course 
conducting everything in accordance with the prevailing 
play upon the number Forty-five, drinking forty-five toasts 
and breaking up at forty-five minutes past twelve. The 
gentlemen of the club, we are told, were particularly 
attentive to the preserving the same good order without, 
as they observed within, doors. ^ Among other precautions, 
to prevent any riotous conduct on the streets, they dis- 
suaded every one they could from illuminating, lest some in 
a fit of intemperate joy might attempt to compel those who 
were known to be disinclined; yet upward of one hun- 
dred and fifty houses, says the Gazette^ were illuminated, 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, April 19, 1770. 



668 HISTOHY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

many with forty-five lights, others with twenty-six, and 
some with other numbers.^ 

After this interlude of rejoicing for Wilkes, the party 
went back to the Liberty Tree and non-importation ; but 
there began already to appear signs of doubt and suspicion 
and of the coming of the inevitable dissolution of these 
self-imposed restrictions upon business and liberty. A 
meeting had been called for the 12th of May, but as the 
weather was inclement, it was postponed until the 14th, 
as it was deemed advisable to have a full meeting, lest, 
it was said, any determination upon the matters intended 
to be laid before it should by the few who had not virtue 
enough to join in the common cause be unjustly repre- 
sented as the act" of a few factious and inconsiderable men. 
We are told that the meeting Avas a large, respectable, 
and determined body of men, whose very countenances 
declared their firmness and zeal for an unremitted prose- 
cution of every constitutional measure to preserve the 
inestimable rights and privileges to which they were born. 
But this large and respectable body was not very punctual 
in its attendance. Were the wiser and better of them 
already tiring of the illegal and tyrannical means to which 
in tlie name of constitutional liberty they found themselves 
committed? As soon as the body was sufficiently numer- 
ous Colonel Henry Laurens was chosen to preside for the 
day. The copy of a circular letter written and sent by 
the general committee to all the colonies on the continent, 
uro'ing union and constancy to the agreement, was laid 
before the meeting and read with loud and repeated 
acclamation ; the letter was unanimously ordered , to be 
published and the general committee thanked for its 
preparation. The circular was accordingly published in 
supplement to the G-azette of the 17th of May. 

1 Supplement to So. Ca. Gazette, May 17, 1770. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 669 

The meeting then went as usual into the consideration 
of certain particular cases. The committee reported that 
all the importers except two houses had adhered not only 
to the letter but to the true intent and meaning of the 
resolutions. The case of one of the delinquents was ac- 
knowledged to be a hard one ; nevertheless, as they were 
determined not to overlook the least breach, well knowing, 
they said, the tendency of admitting bad precedents, — 
"hard cases," — and all were called upon to show why 
they should not "fte treated with the utmost contempt.''^ 
One of the persons charged sent in a letter expressing his 
concern for his infringement of the resolutions, asking 
pardon and promising to observe a more consistent con- 
duct in the future. But this would not suffice. The 
Gazette says that nine-tenths of the people declined in 
terms of disgust so inadequate a satisfaction. They 
demanded an acknowledgment of having broken the 
agreement and a declaration of his being truly sorry for 
his offence, a humble solicitation of pardon, and a 
solemn promise that he would in the future adhere 
strictly to the general resolutions. 

This meeting the G-azette describes as exceeding all 
others in temper and moderation. Every man, it declares, 
that had anything to say was called upon to exj)ress his 
sentiments with freedom ; the most profound silence was 
observed when any spoke, no one was interrupted, nor 
a single person insulted. Yet it immediately adds that 
when a proposal was made to introduce a letter that had 
been received, hinting at a defection in their Boston 
brethren, the whole meeting seemed immediately warmed 
and absolutely refused to suffer it to be read, alleging 
that they could not nor would give the least credit to any 
such insinuation, and declaring that if it could be true, 
that if the whole continent were base enough to abandon 



670 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and desert so noble and generous a cause, — which was 
impossible, — yet that should not have the least sort of 
influence to alter their conduct, wherefore the communi- 
cation of such intelligence was deemed equally improper 
and unnecessary. 

Brave words, upon which they were soon to go back. 
In the meantime the non-importers began either to tire of 
hurling anathemas of contempt and abhorrence or to find 
them ineffectual; for since the breaking up of the last 
meeting there had been much talk of the severe methods 
of effigies and tar and feather; ^ but they were assured that 
one of the misbehaving houses had complied with the 
terms of humiliation proposed, and there was good reason 
to believe the other would do the same. 

But now came another cause of suspicion and distrust.^ 
The ship Sally George^ Evans, Master, arrived on the 2d 
of May with 345 slaves from the coast of Africa. Captain 
Evans had been to Georgia by land and returned a few 
days before this last meeting, which he attended, intend- 
ing to propose to stay about two months to repair his 
vessel and see if any change of affairs might happen in 
his favor, and to offer security that he would not in the 
meantime sell any part of his cargo in the province. After 
attending the meeting, however, he thought it advisable 
to fill his water casks the day following and sail the next 
with his whole cargo. Then came the doubt. Was it pos- 
sible that any planter in the province could be so destitute 
of public virtue as to countenance the unfeeling merchants 
of Georgia by purchasing slaves in that province and 

1 In a note to Count Robert of Paris (vol. II, 130, ed. Ticknor and 
Fields, MDCCCLIX) Sir Walter Scott observes, " Persons among the 
Crusaders found guilty of certain offences did penance in a dress of tar 
and feathers, tiiough it is supposed a punishment of modern invention." 

^ So. Ca. Gazette, May 3, 1770. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 671 

introducing them over land into this ? If there were any 
such, the Grazette warned them to consider that any slave 
so introduced was liable to seizure and forfeiture, one- 
half to the informer, and that they would be narrowly 
watched by their brethren as well as the overseers and 
others, and that there was a determination to inflict the 
highest public censure upon such offenders and to treat 
them with contempt equal to the atrociousness of the 
offence as enemies to the liberties of America. 

The non-importers estimated that no less a sum than 
.£300,000 sterling, at a very moderate computation, had 
been lost to Great Britain })y the resolutions of this prov- 
ince alone to refuse to purchase slaves; and this in conse- 
quence of the attempt to raise about X13,000 per annum 
from all the colonies, in what they considered an uncon- 
stitutional way, to maintain a set of men who only created 
confusion and distrust.^ But this cause of congratulation 
w\as somewhat lessened by the reflection that loaf sugar 
reflned in the town was sold as low as 4s. Qd. (currency) 
the pound, though by the first resolution they had engaged 
to encourage and promote manufactures in general and of 
the province in particular. 

On May the 31st, Ann and Benjamin Mathews are ad- 
vertised by the committee as violators of resolutions and 
persons audaciously counteracting the united sentiment of 
the whole body of the people, not only in this, but in all 
the northern provinces, and preferring their own little 
private advantage to the great good of America, and all 
persons were cautioned against having any commercial 
dealings whatever with them. They were declared to be 
obstinate and inveterate enemies to their country and 
unworthy of the least confidence or esteem. At the same 
time Messrs. William Glen and Son made public declara- 

1 Su. Ca. Gazette, May 24, 1770. 



672 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tion of their sorrow at having through mistake disposed 
of a few pieces of a bale of checks which they should have 
kept in their store, and solemnly promised they would in 
the future adhere more strictly to the resolutions. The 
talk of effigies and tar and feathers was carried into effect 
to the extent of exhibiting one standing in a pillory rep- 
resenting a violator of the resolutions and menacing any 
person who should presume to deal with such a person. 
It was carted through all the streets of the town, attended 
by a prodigious concourse of people, and afterward burnt. 
The non-importers had crushed two men. They had 
run Mr. Drayton out of the province and had silenced 
Mr. Wragg; but they had now stirred up a woman who 
would not so easily be put down without having her say. 
Mrs. Ann Mathews, who was advertised in Mr. Timothy's 
paper, the Crazette^ gets a hearing in the South Carolina 
and American General G-azette, published by Robert Wells, 
who was already charged with being non-committal and 
lukewarm in the cause, and who was later to avow himself 
a loyalist and to carry on his paper as thp Royal Gazette 
during the occupation of Charlestown by the British after 
its capitulation. Mrs. Mathews stated that she had ordered 
the goods in question before the resolutions were entered 
into, but that Captain Curling, being detained by contrary 
winds longer than usual, her goods did not come to hand 
until the 11th of January, 1770. That soon after the goods 
arrived, the committee called on her son to see the original 
order, which he laid before them, stating the particular 
hardship of the case, but that the committee refused to 
allow the goods to be sold and insisted on her son and her- 
self signing a paper promising to store them, which she 
being at the time very ill her son did without consulting 
her, fearing if he did not that the committee would 
advertise him. Upon hearing this, she had begged the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 673 

committee to reconsider her case, offering to reship the 
goods if the committee would indemnify her friend in 
England through whose indorsement she had obtained 
the goods ; but the committee by a small majority of its 
members had refused. That finding that the goods were 
becoming damaged, in the absence of her son she had 
opened and sold them, as she had no other means of sup- 
porting her family or paying her friend who had gone 
security for her in London. But Mrs. Mathews was not 
content with thus stating her own case, which she said 
had been explained by a friend at a meeting under the 
Liberty Tree ; she did not hesitate to attack the committee. 
She charged that Mr. John Edwards, one of the committee, 
had received two cargoes a short time before hers, which 
she defied any of the committee to say were ordered or 
shipped as early as hers. Why was he allowed to sell his 
goods and she not hers? Mr. Lightwood had a case im- 
ported for him by one of the committee which did not 
arrive until a month after hers. Why was not that stored ? 
Mr. Rutledge had received a pair of horses from London 
as late as the 13th of April; had they been stored or re- 
shipped? Because they came in consequence of an old 
order which he could not countermand ? Was not her case 
similar to his? Why, therefore, any difference? None 
could be assigned but that he was a man of spirit and 
could not be trifled with; she, a poor widow, living a few 
doors of one of the leading men of the committee, and thus 
might perhaps take a little cash now and then from some 
of his customers. Why under the Liberty Tree had this 
person proposed to fine her? or why reproach her with her 
poverty? She had alwa3's understood the intention of the 
resolutions was to distress the people of Great Britain, not 
to ruin innocent individuals here. Would any one person 
in England suffer by her goods being stored ? Would any 

VOL. II — 2x 



674 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

one there gain by her selling them? She had offered the 
committee to do what she could ; but nothing short of total 
ruin of herself and her family would suffice. However, 
she still hoped by the blessing of God and the favor of the 
public to ward off the blow, and as the committee had 
not yet assumed the Pope's infallibility, though they had 
adopted his style in the Bull published against herself, 
she flattered herself that others would be allowed the lib- 
erty of judging in her case as well as themselves. 

No doubt there were many in the town who secretly 
rejoiced that Mrs. Mathews had availed herself of her 
womanhood, and had talked back at the committee with- 
out fear of them. The people were getting tired of the 
espionage and tyranny of their proceedings, beside which 
rumors of backslidings in other provinces were inci-easing. 
The meeting under the Liberty Tree, on the 17th of May, 
had refused even to listen to a letter suggesting a defec- 
tion in Boston ; but now came accounts from Rhode Island 
and Georgia which they could not question. 

Another general meeting was held under the Liberty 
Tree on the 27th of June, at which Mr. Charles Pinckney 
was chosen to preside, and its first business was the con- 
sideration of the conduct of Rhode Island and Georgia.^ 
Undoubted intelligence had been received that Rhode 
Island had broken the agreement and imported British 
goods. This the meeting regarded as a betrayal of 
American liberty, and resolved that all commercial inter- 
course and dealing between Rhode Island and this colony 
should immediately and finally cease, except as to such 
goods as had already been ordered. That as the people of 
Georgia, the Hon. Jonathan Bryan and a few other indi- 
viduals excepted, had acted a most singularly infamous 
part since the beginning of this glorious struggle, and had 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, June 28, 1770. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 675 

lately taken every possible advantage of the more virtuous 
colonies, they ought not ouly to be considered in the same 
predicament as the deluded people of Rhode Island, but 
also be amputated from the rest of their brethren as a 
rotten part that might spread a dangerous infection. They 
resolved therefore that all commercial dealing and inter- 
course between themselves and that colony should cease 
in fourteen days from that time, and that all masters of 
vessels from thence after the expiration of the fourteen 
days be accordingly desired to depart vi^ithin twenty-four 
hours ; and that no British goods imported from that 
colony should be landed. The general committee were 
instructed to give the earliest notice of these resolutions 
to all the northern colonies, and recommend them to adopt 
the same in regard to Georgia in the fullest extent. 

A bill was at this time before Parliament in England 
to remove the duties on all articles except tea; but the 
preamble to the act of 1767 and the duty on tea Lord 
North declared must be retained as a mark of the suprem- 
acy of Parliament and the efficient declaration of its right 
to govern the colonies. The meeting resolved to urge 
the other colonies to continue the non-importation until 
the whole act was repealed. They resolved that any sub- 
scriber who should presume, directly or indirectly, to pur- 
chase from or sell for any violator of the general resolu- 
tions, should be looked upon in the same odious light as a 
violator himself, shunned as a pestilence and held in the 
utmost abhorrence and contempt. Then the meeting went 
on to indorse the general committee in every respect, and 
particularly in regard to Mrs. Mathews and her son. They 
declared that the resolution in regard to them had been 
the unanimous determination of the committee at its full- 
est meeting; that they were convinced that the case of 
Mr. Edwards and that of Mrs. Mathews were widely dif- 



676 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ferent; that the same was true of Mr. Lightwood's case. 
Mr. Rutledge's horses had been purchased before the reso- 
lutions were known in England, and had been prevented 
from coming out merely by accident. They resolved that 
Mrs. Mathews's publication in Mr. Wells's paper on the 
15th was a misrepresentation, and in charging the general 
committee with partiality was untrue and malicious. 

Mrs. Mathews had appealed in vain to such a tribunal. 
Who constituted it? Who had or had not a right to vote 
at a general meeting of the inhabitants? Who counted 
the votes ? Who was there to see that justice was done 
her against the clamors of those who conducted the busi- 
ness? It may have been all true that Mr. Edwards's case 
and Mr. Lightwood's case were, each, better than hers; 
and very probably Mr. Rutledge's horses had been bought 
before the resolutions were known in England; but how 
was such a meeting as that to be sure of all these facts ? 
And if all this was so, the case of the widow was a hard 
one and deserved a fairer consideration. But a fair 
consideration was just what such proceedings could not 
afford. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

1770-71 

The arrival on the 31st of May, 1770, of the statue of 
Mr. Pitt, which had been ordered by the Commons' House 
in 1766, caused another interlude to the non-importation 
business. The statue had been sculptured by Mr. Wilton 
of London, and was considered at the time a very fine piece 
of work. Josiah Quincy, on his visit to Charlestown in 
1773, thought the draj)ery exquisitely done, but the atti- 
tude and expression of the piece bad. This criticism 
would probably be concurred in to-day as the statue stands 
in Washington Square with one arm lost — shot off during 
the bombardment of the town in 1780. It was landed 
amidst a vast concourse of inhabitants, many of whom 
were, it was said, of the first rank and consequence, who 
received it with cheers and, preceded by music, drew it 
by hand to the place where it was to rest until the pedestal 
for it was raised. The vessels in the harbor displayed 
their flags, and St. Michael's bells, the Gazette says, 
would have been rung, but were stopped out of regard to 
Isaac Mazyck, a very worthy member of the community, 
who was extremely ill near the church. On the 5th of 
July the statue was raised and placed upon the pedestal 
at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets. There 
was the usual play upon the popular numbers. A flag 
with the words "Pitt and Liberty," and with a branch of 
laurel upon it, was raised upon a staff forty-five feet 
high by sets of twenty-six and ninety-two, members of 

677 



678 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the Club Number Forty-five; as soon as it was fixed, 
twenty-six members of the Assembly ascended the stage, 
whereupon the Hon. Peter Manigault, the Speaker, at the 
request of the people, proclaimed the inscription. As 
soon as this was done, Lord Chatham's health was drunk 
and twenty-six cannon were discharged by the artillery 
company. Three hurrahs succeeded, and St. Michael's 
bells rang out. In the evening Club Number Forty-five 
met at Mr. Dillon's tavern, Avhere an elegant entertain- 
ment was provided for them and the usual forty -five toasts 
were drunk. ^ 

But the rule of the non-importers was nearing its end. 
According to a number of private letters from New York 
there was a party there for immediate general importation 

1 Inscription upon the pedestal to the statue of Pitt. So. Ca. Gazette, 
July 5, 1770 : — 

In Grateful Memory 

of His services to His country in General 

And to America in particular 

The Commons House of Assembly 

of South Carolina 

unanimously voted 

This Statue 

of 

The Eight Hon. William Pitt, Esq. 

who gloriously exerted himself 

In Defending the Freedom of America 

The True Sons of England 

By Promoting a Repeal 

of the Stamp act 

in the year 1706 

Time 

Will sooner Destroy 

This mark of their esteem 

Than 

Erase from their minds 

Their just sense 
Of His Patriotic Virtue 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 679 

of British goods, and it was hinted they might carry their 
point. ^ Then came positive information that the people 
there had deserted the cause of liberty, and the general 
committee advertised for a full meeting on- the 22d of 
August to consider the situation. But no meeting took 
place until the 3d of October, when William Moultrie 
presided, and several persons were called upon to answer 
for violations of the resolutions. Poor Benjamin Mathews 
could not resist the pressure, and notwithstanding the 
gallant fight his mother made for him, he succumbed, 
made a humble confession, and sued for pardon. ^ 

In the meanwhile the merchants of New York and 
Philadelphia, finding it impossible to maintain the agree- 
ment, had consulted and agreed to a general importation 
of all articles except tea. The students of Princeton burnt 
the New York merchants' letter by the hands of the hang- 
man. Boston tore it to pieces and threw it to the winds. 
South Carolina, says Bancroft, whose patriots had just 
raised a statue to Chatham, read it with disdainful anger. 
But South Carolina, he adds, alone could neither continue 
non-importation nor devise a new system. ^ 

A general meeting was held under the Liberty Tree on 
the 13th of December. Henry Laurens was called to the 
chair, and presented and read a paper which was put in 
his hands by the general committee, to the effect that 
intelligence having been received that most of the north- 
ern colonies had departed from the resolutions, and had 
imported goods from Great Britain, the general committee 
desired to know from the people: (1) If under such cir- 
cumstances they would adhere to the resolutions of the 
22d of July, 1769? (2) If not, and if no stand would be 
made by the province alone, whether a limited time should 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, August 9, 1770. 2 /^jv?., October 4, 1770. 

8 Hist, of the United States (Bancroft), (Ed. 1883) vol. IV. 387. 



680 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

be fixed for a general importation? (3) What should 
be done with the goods now in store and any other 
goods which might in the meantime be imported con- 
trary to the general resolutions ? (4) Whether a protest 
should not be made and published against the colonies, 
which by departing from the agreement had weakened 
the union which had so happily subsisted between them? 
Upon putting the first question, says the G-azette, a long 
and profound silence ensued. At length one Mr. Thomas 
Lind made a motion for "Breaking Through," which was 
for a considerable time totally disregarded, but at last was 
seconded by Mr. Alexander Rantowle; pending this it 
was proposed that some alteration should be made in the 
resolutions, which would still preserve their spirit and 
true intent and meaning ; then the reading of the preamble 
and resolutions was called for, and they were read, where- 
upon some one moved to adjourn to some day in the next 
January after the meeting of the General Assembly, but 
this was lost. It appears then to have been assumed 
without further formal vote that the agreement was at an 
end, and the meeting proceeded to pass other resolutions : 

(1) That all possible encouragement be given to such 
manufactures as the province is capable of producing. 

(2) That the article tea should not be imported by any 
subscriber nor purchased from any person while the pres- 
ent duty to be collected in America remained thereon ; and 
that no goods whatever from Great Britain, whereon a 
duty was imposed by act of Parliament, should be imported 
or purchased. (3) It was resolved to restrain the importa- 
tion and use of articles of luxury from Great Britain, and 
in all things to give preference to their own tradesmen 
and manufacturers ; but the further consideration of how 
this was to be done was referred to a new association 
which it was proposed to form for preserving the Rights 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 681 

and Liberties of America! (4) It was resolved that the 
goods imported contrary to the general resolutions, and 
therefore put into store, be redelivered to the several pro- 
prietors on the Monday following. (5) John Rutledge, 
Peter Manigault, Charles Pinckney, and John McKenzie 
were appointed a committee to draw up a protest in behalf 
of the people of South Carolina against the conduct of the 
northern colonies, whereby the j^eople of the province had 
been driven to the necessity of making alterations in the 
general resolutions before all the good ends which were 
expected by entering into them were fully obtained, and 
that it be published. ^ 

If any such protest was ever drawn by this very able 
committee, we have not been able to find a record of it. 
Nor indeed was it likely to have been prepared in view of 
the fact that it was countercharged that South Carolina, 
together with Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia, had dur- 
ing this time actually increased their importations — a 
charge which the activity of the general committee and 
the constant suspicion evident amongst the people tend 
in some measure to corroborate. The shipping lists in 
the Gazettes of the town during this period certainly show 
no falling off. Captain Curling, the favorite master, 
sailed and arrived as usual with full passenger lists, and 
with cargoes of course of nominally excepted goods. But 
doubtless there were other cases of secreted goods beside 
those which the committee detected, notwithstanding their 
viorilance. The whole scheme was destined to failure from 
its very inception. Commercial restrictions have never 
been enforced even by the strongest governments and 
severest penalties ; still less could mere moral obligations 
voluntarily assumed. Pledges and honor could no more 
prevent smuggling than revenue officers. Lord North was 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, December 13, 1770. 



682 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

wise when he resisted the Earl of Hillsborough, who 
was pressing for the execution of severe measures. It 
was better to wait and allow the associations for non- 
importation to fall asunder themselves. It was fortunate 
for South Carolina that the scheme was abandoned else- 
where before it had effected all the evil and mischief it 
must inevitably have wrought among her people. The 
resolutions just adopted were the last we hear of non- 
importation in South Carolina until its renewal was 
attempted by the General Congress in 1774. It will be 
interesting to see what report his Honor the Lieutenant 
Governor made of these proceedings to the government at 
home. He wrote at once to Lord Hillsborough : — 

My Lord • Charles Town, Deer. 13, 1770. 

This day, according to my letter No. 38, there was a numerous 
meeting of planters, merchants & mechanics. After long silence, each 
party acting on the reserve to receive the first attack, at last one of 
no note stepped forth & moved that no further regard should be 
had to the Resohitions, upon wliich a motion was made to consider 
whether there should be any alteration or no. The general voice 
was Yea. Upon which Mr. Lynch, who came fifty miles to town on 
purpose, exerted all his eloquence & even the trope of rhetorical tears 
for the expiring liberty of his dear country which the merchants 
would sell like any other merchandize. Hgjsjras seconded by his two 
brethren, who were for continuing the association & proposed import- 
ing~goods from Holland. But the struggle, tho' strong, proved inef- 
fectual, & the only article now talked of as not proper to be imported 
is Tea. And next Monday all the goods that have been stored un- 
der the direction of the general committee, as contrary to the non- 
importation agreement, are by the connnittee to be delivered to the 
proprietors. But I apprehend the whole association will now be 
wholly at an end. 

Indeed some talk of a new plan of an association, on principles of 
sumptuary Law, equivalent to non-importation, though I do not sup- 
pose it will be of any consequence and probably is intended more to 
preserve an appearance of reluctance in dissolving . the Resolutions 
than with any expectation of succeeding. I thought it my duty to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 683 

give your Lordship this information, and I doubt not but when the 
minds of the people are a little cooled most of them will be ashamed 
of their having been concerned in the Association or in the rash or 
unreasonable means made use of to enforce them. 

1 am, etc., 

Wm. Bull. 

In the meanwhile there had been more trouble in the 
General Assembly. The Commons, it will be recollected, 
on the day of their adjournment made an order upon the 
Treasurer for the sum of X 10, 500 currency, which was 
notoriously a contribution for the payment of the expenses 
of John Wilkes while in prison and of his debts. It 
went, in fact, to discharge the latter in part, which 
amounted to X 20, 000, and was regarded as a handsome 
contribution to him personally. This action of the Com- 
mons could not but have been expected to give great 
offence to the King and to be resented by his ministry. 
The Governor's Council took high ground in opposition 
to the Commons in the matter. The Council then con- 
sisted of Lieutenant Governor Bull, Egerton Leigh, the 
Attorney General, Othniel Beale, John Drayton, John 
Burns, Thomas Skottowe, Sir John Colleton, Bart., Henry 
Middleton, and Daniel Blake. Henry Middleton was 
ultimately to take sides with the people and to become 
one of the leaders in the Revolution and President of the 
Congress under the Confederation. John Drayton was 
the brother-in-law of Lieutenant Governor Bull, and the 
father of William Henry Drayton, who was then fighting 
the non-importers and denouncing this contribution to 
Wilkes, but who, like Middleton, was to abandon the 
King's side and to take a conspicuous part in the over- 
throw of the government. At present the Council was 
unanimous against this indignity to his Majesty and mis- 
appropriation of the public money. 



684 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

On the 5th of April, 1770, the Council, Othniel Beale pre- 
siding, sent a message to the Commons, saying that on read- 
ing the schedule to the tax bill a second time, they were 
much surprised to find a charge there : " To Jacob Motte, 
advanced by him to Mr. Speaker, Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Rut- 
ledge, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Dart, and Mr. Lynch 
by a resolution of the House of the 8th of December last, 
£10,500," which sum appeared by the resolution to have 
been advanced by the public Treasurer out of money in the 
Treasury to be paid into the hands of these gentlemen, 
who were to remit the same to Great Britain for the sup- 
port of the just and constitutional rights of the people of 
Great Britain and America. That it was not the wish of 
the Council to draw into question any points that might 
tend to weaken the harmony and confidence which had so 
happily subsisted between both houses, and which it was 
their duty to cultivate and improve ; but that heed must be 
taken that in their legislative station they did not compli- 
ment one set of virtues at the expense of others. Fully 
sensible that they lived under a kind and gracious Prince, 
and blessed with a constitution which had perhaps arrived 
at as great a state of perfection as human wisdom could 
extend, they could not persuade themselves that a grant of 
such a sum of money was in any sense honorable, fit, or 
decent; that the jurisdiction of the Commons to grant 
money was local and merely for provincial purposes, and 
not decent as the grant b}^ this tax bill in the schedule 
declared it to be his Majest3''s, and yet contained a pro- 
vision which tacitly affronted his Majesty's government, 
which had ever been in their opinion gracious, mild, and 
good to all his faithful people. They did not mean to 
enter into any altercation on the disputed claim of the two 
houses on the head of money bills, their sole view was to 
apprise the Commons of the difficulty which occurred to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 685 

them on the face of the estimate, which was likely to pre- 
vent that concurrence which was absolutely necessary to 
give effect to the bill before them.^ It is singular that in 
this message the Council make no allusion to the Royal 
instructions to Sir Francis Nicholson, and since continued, 
which, as we liave seen, prohibited the appropriation of 
any money which was not to be accounted for to the com- 
missioners of his Majesty's Treasury in Great Britain, or 
to be disposed of otherwise than by warrant under the 
Governor's hand and with the advice of the Council.^ 

The Commons immediately put on their dignity and on 
the 7th sent a message to the Council, saying that to avoid 
all altercation and difference they returned the bill for the 
calm and serious reconsideration of the Council. The 
Council promptly sent it back, with a message that they 
could not think the proceedings of the Commons parlia- 
mentary or proper, and were determined to adhere to the 
sentiments of their former message. The Commons then 
appointed a committee of Mr. Lynch, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. 
Gadsden, Colonel Laurens, Mr. McKenzie, and Mr. Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney to consider what steps it would be 
necessary for the House to take upon the two messages of 
the Council. This committee on the 10th made an elab- 
orate report, going over the same ground, declaring that 
the conduct of the Council was altogether unparliamentary 
and unprecedented, and the charges against the privileges 
and proceedings of the House were altogether groundless, 
unsupported by truth or justice, and tended to draw upon 
them, his Majesty's faithful subjects, the heavy displeasure 
of the sovereign, and to render them odious and contempti- 
ble to their constituents and fellow-subjects. The report 
declared that the House had always upon urgent occasions, 
of which the Council could not be ignorant, exercised a 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, April 12, 1770. * See Chapter II. 



686 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

right of borrowing moneys out of the Treasury, all of which 
they had faithfully and punctually repaid. That to grant 
money for the support of the just and constitutional rights 
of the people of Great Britain and America could not be 
construed to be distasteful and affrontive to his Majesty, 
the general patron of the liberty and rights of the subject. 
The committee recommended that an humble address be 
presented to his Majesty to implore his Royal interposi- 
tion and to entreat him to appoint an Upper House of 
Assembly upon the plan of the original constitution and 
charter of the province; that an address be presented to 
the Lieutenant Governor to inform him of the insult and 
indignity offered to the House by his Majesty's Council 
and to entreat him to procure satisfaction to the House for 
the same. The resolutions recommended by the committee 
were adopted on the 11th, when a message was received 
from his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, requiring the 
immediate attendance of the House in the Council Cham- 
ber. The House attended, and thereupon the Lieutenant 
Governor returned his thanks for the close application 
they had given to the public business, and as he had given 
his assent to several of the bills which they had got ready, 
and it being the time of the year when their presence 
might be required in the country about their private 
affairs, he therefore prorogued them to the 5th of June 
next. 

This was the answer with which the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor anticipated the demand of the Commons that he 
would procure satisfaction to the House for the insult and 
indignity they said had been offered them by the Council. 
It was a rebuke as kindly administered as Lieutenant 
Governor Bull could find a way to perform what was no 
doubt an ungracious task to him. Did the Commons de- 
serve such gentle treatment at his hands? Could they 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 687 

expect him as his Majesty's representative to listen with 
patience to such empty words and mockery of truth? Did 
he not know, as everybody else did, that the money of the 
province had been sent by the House to support Mr. Wilke"s 
in his personal contest with his Majesty's government? 
Was it honest in the Commons to insinuate, as they did, 
that they had only borrowed this money? Had not Mr. 
Speaker Manigault, with Gadsden, Rutledge, Parsons, 
Ferguson, Dart, and Lynch, written to Wilkes's agent 
that it was the intention of the Commons to present this 
sum to the society which had been organized for his sup- 
port? • Did this committee or the Commons intend to 
return this money? 

The Lieutenant Governor prorogued the Assembly, and 
continued to do so from time to time until the IGth of 
August, when it again met, and he immediately sent in 
a message in obedience to his Majesty's command, in- 
forming the House of "an Additional Instruction" which 
had been received, forbidding the Governor upon pain of 
removal to give his assent to any bills by which money 
should be appropriated for defraying expenses incurred 
for services or purposes not immediately arising or inci- 
dental to the province, unless upon the special request of 
his Majesty; and instructing the Governor to see to it 
that a clause was inserted in every such bill subjecting 
the public Treasurer or any other person having custody of 
the public money to a penalty in the sum issued if he 
issued any money so appropriated. 

The House, regardless of this message, immediately 
renewed the controversy with the Council for its interfer- 
ence with their appropriations, and sent in to them the 
resolutions adopted just before the prorogation. The 
Council answered in a long message, protesting that 
the injury to the creditors of the public, and all other 



688 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

evils and mischiefs which must attend a difference be- 
tween the houses, arose from the act of the Commons 
issuing .£10,500 out of the Treasury by their own order, 
which the Council could never reconcile to themselves to 
participate in with the Commons, in any honor or dis- 
grace which might attend the act — an act which no other 
House on the continent, with all their struggles for lib- 
erty, had been induced to adopt — an act which the King 
himself had seriously called in question, and which, in 
their opinion, all dispassionate men must forever disap- 
prove. The Commons appointed a committee to consider 
what steps should be taken, and sent a message* to the 
Council that they were desirous to finish the business of 
the session, and asked that the Council would expedite 
the tax bill. Mr. Lynch, from this committee, reported 
that the message of the Council required no further 
answer, and it was resolved that the good people of the 
colony had the sole and absolute disposal of their own 
money, that the representatives to whom they had dele- 
gated that right are the only guardians of the public 
Treasury, and that the Council styling themselves such 
was absurd and ridiculous. On the other hand, the 
Council replied to the request of the Commons to expe- 
dite the tax bill that no additional argument from them 
could serve any valuable purpose, his Majesty's Royal 
sense in the matter, as disclosed in the late "Additional 
Instruction " to the Governor, being totally disregarded 
by the Commons, and that as nothing could be expected 
either from their wisdom or their prudence, the Council 
unanimously rejected the tax bill. 

The Commons then turned upon the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor and sent him a message praying that he would lay 
before them any representation made to his Majesty upon 
which the "Additional Instruction" was issued. Gov- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 689 

ernor Bull very kindly but firmly replied that he knew of 
none that -had been made by the Council, but as it was 
the known and principal duty of the Governor to repre- 
sent to his Majesty by his ministers all such public 
transactions in the province as deserved the Royal notice, 
according to the King's instructions, he had always en- 
deavored to discharge this dut}^ with punctuality and the 
strictest regard to truth. But, he added, he should con- 
sider himself guilty of the highest presumption, disre- 
spect, and breach of Royal trust and confidence, were he 
without the King's permission to lay before the House 
any letter he may have written upon the subject. When- 
ever that was obtained, he should with great readiness 
obey the Royal pleasure. 

The House, in a long series of resolutions, reported 
from the committee by Mr. Rutledge, asserted again and 
again their right to control and dispose of the people's 
money. They asserted that the order of the House of the 
8th of December before could not be deemed dangerous 
or unwarrantable, or the power of the House drawn in 
question, as the money borrowed had only been applied 
toward frustrating the unjust and unconstitutional meas- 
ures of an arbitrary and oppressive ministry. That the 
instruction could not be supported by any proper infor- 
mation, but was founded upon a false, partial, and insidi- 
ous representation of the proceedings of the House : false 
in asserting that the House had lately assumed a power, 
when in truth they had only exercised an ancient right 
supported by constant usage; partial in concealing the 
resolutions of the Commons to repay the money borrowed; 
and insidious in artfully insinuating that the House had 
directed an unconstitutional application of the public 
treasure granted to his Majesty. That the clause of the 
"Additional Instruction" relating to the appropriation 

VOL. II — 2 Y 



690 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of such money as should be granted by the House is 
unnecessary, and as many evils might arise to the revenue 
from inserting the clause relative to the Treasurer, the 
House should not submit to it. That a minister direct- 
ing how a money bill should be framed is an infringement 
of the privileges of the House, to whose action it belongs 
to originate or propose the same for the convenience or 
assistance of the Governor and Council without any alter- 
ation or amendment whatever. A copy of these resolu- 
tions was sent to the Lieutenant Governor, and the 
agent in London was instructed to rej^resent this matter 
to his Majesty in its true and proper light, and undeceive 
their most gracious sovereign and convince him how much 
he had been imposed upon by misinformation, thereby to 
avert the Royal displeasure from his dutiful and loyal 
subjects the Commons' House of the province. 

This was indeed laying upon Mr. Garth, the agent, 
a difhcult task. How had the King been imposed upon 
by misinformation? Was it not true that while his 
Majesty and his ministers were engaged in a contest 
with Wilkes without parallel in English history, this 
money was contributed to the support of Wilkes in that 
controversy? Were not these facts well known to every 
person connected with the matter, whether at the court 
of St. James or in the colony of South Carolina? What 
else was such a proceeding but a defiance of the King in 
a matter with which the Commons of South Carolina had 
no concern whatever? This defence of the Commons was, 
to say the least, most disingenuous. How could they 
claim precedent for such action ? Where could they point 
to a single instance of any transaction in the least resem- 
bling the voluntary sending of the people's money out of 
the province to support a person abroad, whether that 
person be patriot or outlaw? How did they propose to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 691 

repay it? Did any member of the Commons propose to 
pay back this money out of his own pocket? The well- 
understood truth was that the talk of repayment was all 
a pretence and subterfuge. The resolution of the 8th of 
December did indeed order the Treasurer to advance the 
money, but no one dreamt of its ever being repaid, and 
no such attempt was ever made. 

On the 7th of September the Commons sent a message 
to the Lieutenant Governor, informing his Honor that as 
his Majesty's Council had rejected the tax bill, the House 
could not agree to come into measures which might in- 
crease the public debt or to an expense which it might 
never be in their power to defray or to raise money from 
the people which might by possibility come into unsafe 
hands; they desired, therefore, his leave to adjourn for 
six months. Governor Bull replied that he was sorry to 
learn that there was no possibility of doing any business 
during this sitting of the General Assembly. But before 
he put an end to it, he thought it proper to acquaint the 
House that he should transmit to his Majesty's principal 
Secretary of State, to be laid before the King, a copy of 
their resolutions. He could not forbear to observe that 
whatever injurious suspicions were entertained, or censure 
intended, impressed concern upon his heart, though greatly 
alleviated by a consciousness of their being uninvited. He 
cheerfully trusted to his actions, and not to his words, to 
determine whether he was a faithful subject to the King 
and a real and zealous friend to the province, which in 
his mind were always inseparable. He prorogued the 
Assembly to the 16th of January, 1771. 

On the 15th of February, 1771, Lieutenant Governor 
Bull communicated to the Council the following para- 
graph of a letter he had received that day from the Earl 
of Hillsborough : " I must not omit to acquaint you that 



692 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the becoming manner in which the Council have exerted 
themselves in support of his Majesty's measures has not 
escaped the King's observation. And I am commanded 
to signify to you his Majesty's pleasure that you should 
express to them his Majesty's approbation of their con- 
duct."! 

Thus encouraged by the Royal approbation, as well as 
precluded by the "Additional Instruction," the executive 
assent was withholden from money bills which were in 
any manner contrary to them. The House of Assembly 
having their reason, too, for not giving way, a constant 
friction was kept up between the two bodies, in which the 
old dispute as to the right of the Council to sit as an 
Upper House of Assembly was revived. The consequence 
was that all tax bills from August, 1770, were rejected 
by Council, and not a public debt provided for from 
the commencement of this dispute, on the 8th of Decem- 
ber, 1769, until just before the breaking out of the Revo- 
lution in 1774, when, as we shall see, certificates were 
issued by the Commons without the consent of either 
Governor or Council. ^ 

1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 68, 69. 
^Ibid.y 69. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

1771-73 

We have seen with what expressions of concern for the 
state of his health the Commons had bade adieu to his 
Excellency Lord Charles Montagu, upon his leaving the 
province on the 29th of July, 1769 ; the thanks they had 
returned him for the assurances of his endeavors to benefit 
the province during his residence at home, and the confi- 
dence expressed that it would lead to what they most 
earnestly wished for — a good understanding and lasting 
intercourse upon the principles of justice and constitu- 
tional liberty between the colony and the mother country. 
Since he had left them two years ago, though the govern- 
ment had been administered by Lieutenant Governor Bull 
with all the wisdom, moderation, and tact which his long 
experience, kindly nature, and yet firm character had 
brought to the councils of the King ; notwithstanding his 
loyalty to his Royal master and devotion to his people, 
among whom he had been born and lived, things had gone 
from bad to worse. Lord Charles, if, indeed, he had paid 
any attention to the affairs of the colony while in Eng- 
land, had accomplished nothing in bringing about a better 
understanding between the government at home and the 
refractory Commons. He had left them with the ques- 
tion open as to the quartering of the troops, and in the 
commencement of the excitement over the non-importa- 
tion agreement; and since he had gone new embroilment 
had arisen about the contribution of the Commons to the 

693 



694 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Wilkes's fund and the incidental, but still more serious, 
dispute with the Council upon the subject of tax bills. 
On the 15th of September, 1771, his Majesty's ship of 
war, Tartar^ arrived off the bar with his Excellency the 
Governor and his lady and son on board. They hastened 
to the town, saluted as usual by the forts as they passed, 
and were received at the water-side by members of the 
Council, the Lieutenant Governor and his lady immedi- 
ately waiting upon them with their congratulations on 
their safe return. The Council and Commons made suit- 
able addresses, and the bells of St. Michael's were rung 
for the rest of the day. But his Excellency does not 
appear to have returned in the best of humors. He was 
not satisfied with the lodgings he could obtain in the 
town. He took up his residence at Fort Johnson ; and 
it soon began to be rumored that a castle was to be built 
there at the expense of the Parliament of Great Brit- 
ain. The Commons were in no better humor than the 
Governor. 

Soon after his arrival, that body in a very decisive 
manner showed their determination to persist in the abso- 
lute and independent control of the taxes of the province. 
They passed an order upon the public Treasurers, Henry 
Peronneau and Benjamin Dart, for the advance of the 
sum of X300 currency to the committee on silk manufac- 
tures. Messrs. Peronneau and Dart, the Treasurers, 
refused to comply with the order, because it had been 
made by the House of Commons alone, without the con- 
currence of the Council; whereupon the Commons ad- 
judged the conduct of the Treasurers a contempt, and 
committed them both to the common jail. The Governor, 
by proclamation of the 5th of November, promptly dis- 
solved the Assembly. 

Writs were issued, and a new House was elected, 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 695 

which met on the 2d of April, 1772. All the old offenders 
were again in their seats, — Gadsden, Rutledge, Parsons, 
Lynch, Pinckney, and others, — and Peter Manigault was 
promptly reelected Speaker. The Governor sent in a 
message, flattering himself with the pleasing prospects he 
entertained from the assurances he had received that the 
business of the province would be proceeded upon with the 
cool deliberation that makes the public welfare its chief 
object; but these anticipations he said had been most dis- 
agreeably interrupted by the Commons persisting in their 
claim to dispose of and issue the public money without 
the consent or concurrence of the other two branches of 
the government, — the Council and Governor, — and in- 
sisting upon their riglit to imprison the public Treasurers 
for refusing to advance a sum of money upon an order of 
the House only. The Commons' House returned answer 
to the Governor's speech, justifjnng their conduct in 
imprisoning the public Treasurers for contempt and vio- 
lation of their authority, and declaring their firm purpose 
of adhering to the constitution by not suffering their 
rights and privileges to be impaired in their hands ; they 
would not be prevailed upon by any consideration to be 
betrayed into a surrender of the inherent right of their 
constituents giving and granting their own money in such 
way and manner only as they might think proper. On 
the 10th the Governor sent for the Commons, and, saying 
he could see no good purpose that could accrue by longer 
continuation of a House that had adopted sentiments 
which his Majesty considered unconstitutional and dis- 
respectful, he would therefore dissolve the Assembly. 

But the public debts were pressing, the public biisiness 
demanded attention, and his Excellency was uncomfort- 
able and thoroughly dissatisfied with his position, and in 
his displeasure he struck upon the unfortunate idea of 



696 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

removing the seat of government from Charlestown, thns 
to get rid of its influence and away from the Liberty Tree 
and the meddling mechanics who concocted all the mis- 
chief under its shade. So on the 28th of August his 
Excellency informed the Council that by direction of the 
Secretary of State for the colonies he had prepared writs 
for electing a new Assembly, and that as he had not been 
able to get a house to live in, nor see the least prospect of 
getting one in which to attend to the business of the 
General Assembly, in Charlestown, he had directed that 
the election writs should be returnable at Beaufort, Port 
Royal. His Honor the Lieutenant Governor frankly ad- 
vised his Excellency against this step ; he admitted that 
it was a very great inconvenience to his Excellency to be 
so long without a home proper for his accommodaton and 
suitable to the rank he held in the province, but he urged 
that the calling the Assembly to any other place than at 
Charlestown, especially so remote a place as Beaufort, 
would be attended with many inconveniences and difili- 
culties; that the present was a very critical time; that 
the session of the Assembly would very probably be a 
very busy and interesting one, as the general duty law, 
on which the salaries of the judges, clergy, and other 
officers depended, as well as several other most useful 
laws, would expire in a prorogation or dissolution ; that 
if the Assembly proceeded upon business, they must have 
recourse to records and papers, as well as the Treasurer's 
accounts, which were kept at Charlestown, some of them 
fixed there by law, and the removal, if practicable, would 
be attended with hazard and inconvenience ; that he saw 
but one benefit which would possibly result, which was 
that some of the leading members, whose influence had 
chiefly prevented public business in the late Assembly, 
might make the distance an excuse for their not serving. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 697 

and public business might perhaps go on; but that was 
only conjecture, and perhaps the Assembly might either 
not meet at all, or meet in a very ill humor; on the 
whole, while he was entirely satisfied with the power of 
the Governor to remove the Assembly to any part of the 
province, which had before been done by his father, by 
Governor Glenn, and by himself, holding the Assembly at 
Ashley Ferry, when pestilential disorders raged in Charles- 
town, he did not think it expedient to do so in the pres- 
ent instance. But his Honor's protest was not even 
seconded in the Council, and the writs of election being 
already filled out returnable at Beaufort, the Council 
appointed the 22d and 23d of September as the days of 
election, the day of return the 8th of October, and the 
Governor signed and sealed them. 

The possibility that some of the leading and influential 
members of the* Commons who were resisting the Gov- 
ernor and Council might not take the trouble to go to 
Beaufort, seems to have been the hope of his Excellency 
in calling the Assembly there; but in this he was much 
mistaken. Nineteen representatives were required to be 
present to constitute a quorum of the Commons. It was 
very unusual that that number would be present on the 
day to which the writs were returnable. Three or four 
days generally elapsed before a House could be formed to 
choose a speaker. But upon this occasion, notwithstand- 
ing the trouble and inconvenience of a meeting at such a 
distance, — at least seventy-five miles from the established 
seat of government, — not less than thirty-seven of the 
representatives were assembled at the court-house in 
Beaufort by ten o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 
8th of October, the day fixed by the Governor for the 
meeting of the Assembly; and by noon thirty-four had 
taken all the oaths required by law, had unanimously 



698 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rechosen Peter Manigaiilt to be their Speaker, and were 
ready to present him to the Governor and to proceed to 
business. So far, indeed, from having a small and sub- 
servient body to meet him at Beaufort, the Governor 
found every member of the House present but five, and 
the absence of these could satisfactorily be accounted for, 
nor were those present in any complying humor. Against 
the Lieutenant Governor's advice his Excellency the Gov- 
ernor had stretched his prerogative to the utmost, and had 
accomplished nothing by it. This large attendance of the 
Commons, so far from pleasing his Excellency, angered 
him all the more, and induced a still more unwarrantable 
action on his part. Instead of receiving the Commons at 
once, as was clearly his duty, approving or disapproving 
of their choice of a Speaker, and allowing them to proceed 
to business, he put off their reception until Saturday, the 
10th, at twelve o'clock, nor was the Speaker approved nor 
the session opened until that day, when his Lordship 
made his customary speech to both houses. This speech 
was the most extraordinary part of the whole proceeding. 
Commencing with a lecture full of trite and commonplace 
observations upon the general duty of legislators, and the 
temper in which they should enter upon their business, 
and of his own constant intention to preserve the laws of 
the province from violation, which he declared was the 
only cause of his calling the General Assembly at this 
time, and then going into a long disquisition upon the 
points of difference between the former House and the 
Governor and Council, he went on to say that as he had 
now some reason to think that the speedy sitting of the 
General Assembly in Charlestown might induce such 
deliberation as would be proper, and pledging himself 
at all times to exercise his authority as might conduce 
to the public benefit, he prorogued the General Assembly 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 699 

to the twenty-third day of the month, to be then held at 
the usual place in Charlestown. So though, against the 
Lieutenant Governor's protest, he had caused most of the 
members of the Assembly to go seventy-five miles — a 
long journey in those days — to a place of inconvenient 
accommodation, he keeps them there three days without 
allowing them to transact any business, and then orders 
them all back to Charlestown. 

His Lordship immediately set out for town, and was 
received with salutes from the forts as a returning con- 
queror. The Commons hurried after him, and were all 
in their seats at the time to which his Excellency had 
prorogued them. They had been in session but a few 
days when Peter Manigault, who had so long filled the 
chair of Speaker with acceptability to all, resigned his 
seat on account of ill health, and received the most cordial 
thanks of the House. His resignation was caused by his 
failing health. He died soon after. Rawlins Lowndes, 
who had preceded him as Speaker, was again reelected in 
Mr. Manigault's place. 

On the 2d of November, 1772, the Committee on Griev- 
ances made a report to the House upon the conduct of the 
Governor in calling the Assembly at Beaufort, keeping 
them there three days without permitting them to do 
any business, and proroguing them back to Charlestown. 
The report was moderate, calm, and dignified. It de- 
clared that the Governor's conduct called for the utmost 
resentment of the House, and would well justify their 
coming immediately to a resolution to do no more busi- 
ness with his Excellency until he had given them satis- 
faction in the matter. Yet as the people had been long 
deprived of representation, and his Majesty's service and 
the interest of the colony required the immediate sitting 
and proceeding of the General Assembly, the committee 



700 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

recommended that the House should not carry matters to 
that extremity, but that they should enter into certain 
resolutions which the committee proposed: (1) That as 
the House did not exist when his Excellency formed the 
plan of calling the General Assembly to Beaufort, his 
proceeding was founded upon ill will to the body of free- 
men of the province, inasmuch as he thereby showed his 
purpose of injuring and affronting whomsoever the free- 
holders of the colony should choose to represent them. 
(2) That his Excellency's calling the General Assembly 
to Beaufort, a place distant from Charlestown, where such 
assemblies had always been held, except in cases when 
malignant and contagious disorders raged there, where all 
the public offices and records were kept, at a time danger- 
ous to the health and inconvenient to the private affairs of 
the members, was a most unprecedented, oppressive, and 
unwarranted abuse of a Royal prerogative. (3) That his 
keeping them there three days before he would receive 
them with the Speaker, and then immediately proroguing 
them, was adding insult to injury, and plainly manifested 
his contempt of the people's representatives. (4) That 
his proroguing the General Assembly without suffering 
them to sit a moment as a legislative body was at least 
an evasion, if not a direct violation, of the election law, 
which enacted that the sitting and holding of the General 
Assembly should not be discontinued above six months. 
The committee recommended that the agent in London 
should be ordered to make the strongest representation to 
his Majesty of the arbitrary and oppressive proceedings of 
the Governor to use his utmost endeavors to procure the 
removal of his Excellency from the government, or such 
other mark of his Majesty's Royal displeasure as would 
prevent Governors for the future from oppressing the 
people by abusing those prerogatives which were intended 
for their benefit. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 70l 

Just as the Commons' House were concluding the debate 
of the last paragraph of the report, they received a mes- 
sage from the Governor to attend him in the Council 
Chamber. No doubt expecting that it might be his in- 
tention to either prorogue or dissolve them, the House 
took the precaution to finish their action on the report 
before attending ; which having done, they waited on his 
Excellency, who, as they had anticipated, prorogued 
them to the 9th. On their meeting again on this day, 
they found the Governor in a furious passion. During 
their absence he had sent for the journal of the House, 
claiming his right to a perusal of it at any time. It 
happened that Rawlins Lowndes, the Speaker, had taken 
the journal home to examine it, as he claimed had been 
the constant practice of all the Speakers, in order to 
inform themselves of the business of the House and to 
inspect it for errors or omissions. The Governor there- 
upon sent a note to Mr. Lowndes, demanding the journal. 
Mr. Lowndes happened to be spending the evening at the 
house of a friend when the note was left; but his servant, 
thinking it important, took it to him. Tlie Governor's note 
was received about nine o'clock in the evening, just as the 
party at his friend's house were going to supper, too late, 
Mr. Lowndes considered, for a compliance with the demand 
that night, especially as he must then have carried the 
journal himself to the Governor, which he had no idea of do- 
ing. The next morning, however, he rose early and had the 
journal taken to the Clerk of tlie House, and desired that it 
might be sent to his Excellency. The clerk was ill, and 
in this way there was some further delay in the Gov- 
ernor receiving it; upon his receiving it, he saw that the 
Commons had delayed their attendance in response to his 
message until they had passed the resolutions condemning 
his conduct, protesting against his action, and requesting 



702 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his recall. All this greatly angered and excited his 
Excellency, and when he met the Assembly, he proceeded 
in violent temper to assert his right at all times to inspect 
the journal of the General Assembly, and then to charge 
upon the Speaker unprecedented and unconstitutional 
conduct in taking the journal into his possession, and 
complaining that, though he wrote to demand, he could 
not procure it until the next day, and then only a very 
short time before the meeting of the House. Then he 
went on to imply that the Speaker had taken the jour- 
nal in order to prevent his seeing the action of the 
House in regard to his conduct. "Is it," he asked, "in 
such a manner that violent measures in a Commons' House 
of Assembly are to be concealed from the Governor until 
almost the moment of their being carried into execu- 
tion ? " He went on to say that he had intended to suffer 
the House to sit for the dispatch of business, but having 
perused the journal of the day on which he had last pro- 
rogued them, he found that after they had received his 
commands immediately to attend him, they had continued 
to sit and to put a question and to form resolves and 
orders — a behavior unprecedented, he declared, and of a 
most dangerous tendency, a proof of the contemj)t of the 
King's prerogative which is a part of the law of the land, 
a proceeding which he could not suffer to pass with impu- 
nity. "I shall part with the Commons' House with the 
less reluctance," he continued, "because they seem want- 
ing in justice to their constituents, whom they endeavor 
to delude, pretending to serve them by a measure which 
from experience and from the information of their agent 
they know has not a chance of procuring relief to the 
distressed public; improperly spending their time in 
impugning that exercise of the prerogative which the 
uninterrupted silence of the House had confessed to be 



UNDER THE llOYAL GOVERNMENT 703 

constitutional; wantonly showing how they regard the 
laws of Parliament by innovating upon them; acting in 
such a manner as is unknown in parliamentary proceed- 
ings, from which it is my duty not to permit any devi- 
ation." "I do therefore dissolve the General Assembly." 
In the incoherence of this speech it is almost impos- 
sible to follow his Excellency further than to perceive 
that he was too angry to make himself understood — if, 
indeed, he had any clear idea upon the subject, except 
that the Commons had dared to sit after he had sent for 
them, and that, too, in order to pass resolutions censuring 
himself and asking for his removal. It was, too, all the 
more angering, no doubt, because, though his Excellency 
was, to say the best, a man of but very moderate ability, 
he could not but perceive that in calling the Assembly 
at Beaufort, against the advice of his Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, he had committed a political blunder, if not 
worse. He had but to couple the declarations of the first 
and last paragraphs of his speech at Beaufort to perceive 
in what an absurd and inconsistent position he had put 
himself. He had begun with saying, " My knowledge of 
the situation of affairs in the country and of her real 
interests, and my ardent wishes to promote them, induced 
me to summon this General Assembly to meet in this 
town" (Beaufort), and yet had concluded, "and as I 
have now reason to think that the speedy sitting of the 
General Assembly in Charlestoum may induce such delib- 
eration as may be for the public benefit, I do prorogue the 
General Assembly to the 22d of October instant, to be 
then held at the usual place in Charles Town." What 
had changed his views, and when had this new reason to 
chanofe back to Charlestown occurred to him? Had he 
changed his mind during the delivery of his speech? It 
seemed as if he had. By this blunder, he had united the 



704 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

people in support of the Commons, when many of the best 
of them no doubt objected as much as he did to the misap- 
propriation of the public funds in sending money to pay 
debts and expenses of the profligate ^/ilkes. 

Mr. Lowndes addressed a communication to the printer 
of the G-azette, November 5, 1772, in answer to the Gov- 
ernor's strictures upon him, explaining his accidental 
possession of the journal at the time the Governor sent 
for it, and his delay in sending it to his Excellency, 
and with a great deal of dignity concluding: "My idea, 
my sentiments, are known to many gentlemen, that 
if the Governor has a right to inspect the journals, it is 
below the dignity of the House and its Speaker to use 
any effort or evasions to keep them from him ; if he has 
no riglit, his claim ought to be disputed upon its proper 
ground. What I did was from my own motives. I had 
no authority or sanction from the House." 

New writs were at once issued for an election, to be 
held on the 15th and 16th of December, 1772, for repre- 
sentatives, and the new House was to assemble on the 
1st of February, 1773. But if his Excellency could part 
with the old members without reluctance, their constitu- 
ents could not. The same members were returned, and 
as soon as they met they unanimously reelected Rawlins 
Lowndes Speaker. Whereupon the Governor first pro- 
rogued them until the 15th, and on the 11th issued a proc- 
lamation dissolving them. 

Still another election was held, on the 10th of February, 
1773, and the same members were again returned, who, 
when they met on the 23d, again immediately reelected 
Rawlins Lowndes Speaker. This was to be the last 
House of Commons under the Royal government. 

Lord Charles Greville Montagu's unfortunate admin- 
istration was at an end. He was worn out with the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 705 

struggle and threw up his office. He wa,s to have em- 
barked on the 2d of March on his return to Engkmd, and 
attended a ball given by the St. Cecilia Society the even- 
ing before, as his last appearance in the province. The 
winds, however, proved unfavorable, and it was not until 
the 8th that his Excellency sailed with his family in his 
Majesty's packet boat, the Eagle, which had just carried 
to Savannah Sir James Wright, the Governor of Georgia. 
The forts saluted his Excellency as his vessel dropped down 
the harbor, and Captain Gadsden's corps, the artillery 
company, paraded and joined in the salute upon his 
departure ; but it would have been better for his memory 
in South Carolina if his Lordship had not returned to the 
province Avith ideas of building a castle on James's Island 
for his residence, and of stretching the King's prerogative 
so foolishly in calling the Assembly at Beaufort. 

We have mentioned in a previous chapter Josiah 
Quincy's meeting Lord Charles at a ball of the St. 
Cecilia Society the evening before his departure. Mr. 
Quincy was then on a visit to Charlestown avowedly, and 
no doubt truly, on account of his health,^ but it was sus- 
pected that his visit was not altogether without political 
motive; at any rate, while here he kept a journal, in 
which he carefully recorded the views and opinions he 
heard expressed, and noted the interests and sympathies 
of the people in relation to the great questions which 
were agitating the colonies, and in which Massachusetts 
was taking so prominent a part. He was received with 
great hospitality, and was cordially entertained. He gives 
a very particular account of a dinner party at Mr. Miles 
Brewton's, which, in view of subsequent events, is too full 
of interest to be omitted here.^ 

1 Memoirs of J. Quincy, Jr.., 70. 

2 Ibid., 100, 101. 

VOL. II — li Z 



706 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

"March 8 (1773). Dined with a large company at Miles Brew- 
ton's, Esq., a gentleman of very large foitune, — a most superb house, 
said to have cost him 8000£ sterling. Politics started before dinnei', 
a hot, sensible, flaming tory one, Mr. , a native Britain, ad- 
vanced that ' Great Britain had better be without any of the colonies ; 
that she committed a most capital political blunder in not ceding 
Canada to France ; that all the northern colonies, to the colony of 
New York, and even New York also, were now working the bane of 
Great Britain ; that Great Britain would do wisely to renounce the 
colonies to the north, and leave them a prey to their continental 
neighbors, or foreign powers ; that none of the political writings or 
conduct of the colonies would bear any examination but Virginia, 
and none could lay any claim to encomium but that province ; ' 
strongly urged 'that the Massachusetts were aiming at sovereignty 
over the other provinces, that they now took the lead, were assuming 
dictatorial,' &c., &c. 'You may depend upon it,' added he, 'that if 
Great Britain should renounce the sovereignty of this continent, or if 
the colonies shake themselves clear of her authority, that you all 
(meaning the Carolinas and the other provinces) will have governors 
sent you from Boston. Boston aims at nothing less than the sover- 
eignty of this whole continent. I know it,' etc., etc." 



There is prolDably no more historical house in this coun- 
try than this of Miles Biewton's, in which Mr. Quincy 
was entertained, and in which the above prophecy Avas 
made. It was the scene of stirring events during Lord 
William Campbell's attempt to recover the government 
from the general committee, which had seized upon it in 
1775. U[)on the fall of Charlestown in 1780, during the 
Revolution, it was the headquarters of Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, and afterward of Colonel Balfour, the commandant 
of the town. It was in its spacious and elegant parlor 
that the affecting scene of the ineffectual appeal of Mrs. 
Peronneau and other ladies was made to spare the life of 
the martyr, Isaac Hayne, to the inexorable Balfour and 
the complacent Lord Rawdon. Upon the fall of Charles- 
ton, during the late war between the States in 18G5, it 



I 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 707 

was at once taken as the headquarters of the Federal army 
of occupation. Thus it has twice been the headquarters 
of an invading army — in neither case that of a foreign 
foe. In the latter a General from Maine — if not from 
Massachusetts — held his rule there as Governor of the 
city, and the prophecy which Mr. Quincy recorded was 
fulfilled within the very walls in which it was made.^ 

1 The author of this work was himself connected with an interesting inci- 
dent in the fultilment of the prophecy mentioned in the text. Calling at 
this liouse upon the late Hon. William Alston Pringle, the city Recorder, a 
great-great-grandson of Miles Brewton, residing in it, during an illness 
some time previous to his death, he was invited to the bed chamber in 
which Judge Pringle then lay sick. During the visit the author remarked, 
"Judge, it will probably surprise you to know that I have been in this 
chamber before." "Ah! how was that?" he said. Referring to the 
occupation of the house as the headquarters of the Federal army at the 
end of the war, the author related that he had occasion while upon parole 
as a Confederate officer, just after the sun-ender, to report to the Federal 
General, and was shown by the orderly to this room, then occupied by 
the Adjutant General, with whom he transacted his business ; the com- 
mandant General O. O. Howard, having his office in the adjoining room. 
Judge Pringle listened with gi'eat interest, and, recalling Quincy's story of 
the prophecy, lie said that its fulfilment was still more remarkable in his 
own case: that he had had himself to come to the house about the same 
time to apply for the restoration of his father's plantation, — there was 
no chance at that time of the restoration of the house, which had come by 
descent from Miles Brewton to his mother, as it was then so occupied, — 
and upon presenting himself had been shown up to the adjoining room to 
that in which they then were, that, while waiting the General's leisure, 
he was observing some mutilation of the wall, when the General remarked 
that he seemed interested in the room. "Yes, General," he replied, 
"I am, considering that this was my mother's bridal chamber, and that 
in it I was born." 

Soon after this — in the fall of 1865 — General Charles Devens from 
Massachusetts, afterwards Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court 
of that commonwealth, was assigned to the command of the Military 
District, and as such was military governor of Charleston. His head- 
quarters were not, however, in the Brewton mansion. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

1773-74 

The Gazette^ in announcing the departure of his Excel- 
lency, Lord Charles Greville Montagu, observes that the 
administration of the affairs of the government would for 
a fifth time devolve upon the Hon. William Bull. There 
was a strong desire in the province that Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull should receive the full appointment. It would 
have been well for the Royal authority had the commis- 
sion been given him. He had been Lieutenant Governor 
now for many years, and during a large part of that time 
had been the chief magistrate, exercising the office with 
dignity and propriety. He was related to most of the 
leading Whigs, but faithful to the King and honorable in 
all his transactions. He believed that obedience to the 
Royal government was a paramount duty, and acted 
accordingly. He had a princely fortune at stake, but 
did not waver in his conscientious duty to the King. It 
was supposed by some, says Dr. Johnson in his Tradi- 
tions^ that if Willam Bull had been made dictator in 
this crisis of American affairs, there may have been no 
Revolution; that his knowledge of the American rights 
and feelings, his sense of justice and of true policy, would 
have restrained him from enforcing unconstitutional taxes 
on British subjects ; that his firm, patriotic, and concili- 
atory administration would probably have prevented a 
resort to the ultima ratio. This was no doubt supposing 
too much; but it is certain that Governor Bull was a 

708 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 709 

great favorite in South Carolina, and possessed more in- 
fluence for tlie Royal cause than any other man in the 
province, and far more than any stranger could possibly 
exert. The wish that William Bull should be made the 
Governor soon produced the report that he would be ap- 
pointed, but the Crazette of May 3 had with regret to 
dispel the hope and to say that there was no foundation 
for the report which had prevailed. On the contrary, it 
announced that there were grounds for belief that the 
Right Honorable Lord William Campbell, the present 
Governor of Nova Scotia, would be promoted to this 
province, and the news was confirmed soon after. Lord 
William Campbell was the third brother of the Duke of 
Argyle. He was no stranger in South Carolina. He 
had married Miss Sarah Izard, a young lady of one of the 
oldest and richest families in the province, and had just 
been with his wife on a visit in Charlestown. He did 
not, however, come to assume his office until too late. 
When he did at last arrive, the government had been 
superseded by the Provincial Congress. He was to end 
his short connection with his wife's native land, and his 
life as well, with a fatal wound received upon one of the 
vessels under Sir Peter Parker, in his attack upon Fort 
Moultrie, three years after his appointment as Governor. 

The Commons' House which had been elected on the 
23d of February, 1773, did not assemble as promptly as 
that which had met at Beaufort; but as soon as a quorum 
was formed, it unanimously reelected Rawlins Lowndes 
Speaker, whose choice Lieutenant Governor Bull at once 
confirmed. Lieutenant Governor Bull addressed the Com- 
mons' House as if nothing had occurred to interrupt the 
relations between the government and the people. Though 
they had reason to rejoice in the many advantages they 
derived from their prosperous condition, yet it would 



710 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

occur to the House, he said, in their deliberations for the 
public good, that the aid of the legislature is still want- 
ing to make further improvements on their part in litera- 
ture, agriculture, and commerce. These he mentioned as 
general objects of their attention. He recommended to 
them consideration of the state of the public Treasury and 
the duration of that unfortunate law, — the general duty 
act. He would order the public Treasurers to lay before 
them the accounts of the public debts, for which he 
desired they would make speedy and effectual j)rovision. 
The Commons' House thus met in a conciliatory tone, and 
went cordially to work upon the business of the province. 

Mr. William Henry Drayton, who had left the province 
on the 4th of January, 1770, in disgust at the conduct 
of the non-importation association and the contribution of 
the Commons to the Wilkes's fund, had taken with him 
the correspondence between Christopher Gadsden, John 
McKenzie, William Wragg, and himself, and published 
it in London. This correspondence thus published at- 
tracted the attention of the government; he was pre- 
sented at court, was received with marked favor, and on 
the 27th of February, 1771, was appointed a member of 
the Council of the province of South Carolina; but he 
was in no haste to return home. He remained to bask 
in the sunshine of royalty for more than a year, and did 
not take his seat at the Council board at home until the 
3d of April, 1772. By the end of August, 1773, he was 
in open breach with the Council, of which he continued, 
however, a member until suspended by the Lieutenant 
Governor, his uncle, the 1st of March, 1775. 

At the time Mr. Drayton took his seat at the board, the 
Council consisted of the Lieutenant Governor, William 
Bull; Sir Egerton Leigh, the Attorney General, he hav- 
ing just been created a baronet; Thomas Knox Gordon, 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVEKNMENT 711 

from Ireland, the newly appointed Chief Justice; John 
Drayton, the Lieutenant Governor's brother-in-law, and 
tlie father of William Henry; Daniel Blake, Barnard 
Elliott, John Burns, and Thomas Skotowe. Of these 
the Lieutenant Governor, the Draytons, Blake, and Elliott 
were natives; the others were placemen from England. 
It was the composition of this body which Mr. Drayton, 
two years after, .while still a member of it, attacked in 
his famous letter to the American Congress over the sig- 
nature of "^reerna/i," in which name, as we have seen, 
in 17G9, he opposed so earnestly the non-importation 
agreement, and denounced the sending of the public 
money to Wilkes. As "" Freemaii'" he had maintained 
the constitutionality of the revenue laws, opposed the 
non-importation agreement, and ridiculed the idea of 
carpenters, cobblers, and butchers meddling with State 
affairs. As ''''Freeman'''' he was now denouncing the 
strangers, members of the Council, and opposing the 
measures of the Royal government. But he was not 
willing to give up his seat at the King's Council board, 
though he had to sit there beside the placemen he so 
despised. Nor had he yet found the occasion for a break 
with the King's friends, if indeed he was yet seeking 
it.i 

The original establishment of councils in the Royal 
government on this continent, Mr. Drayton wrote, con- 
sisted principally of men of property established in the 
colony. Such a Council could not but be well acquainted 
with the interests of the country and be no less ready 
and zealous to promote them, at the hazard of their seat. 
Such men stood in awe of no minister, yet they rendered 
the most essential service to the Crown, as well as to the 
people. But now, he said, the principle of appointment 

1 Gibbes's Docmnentary Hist. 1764-76, 20. 



712 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

is reversed; we see in Council more strangers from 
England than men of rank in the colony, — counsellors 
because they are sent over to fill offices of X200 or 
.£300 per annum as their only substance in life. Thus 
strangers, not to be supposed very solicitous about the 
prosperity of the colony, in which they have no interest 
but their commissions, are as legislators to determine 
upon the res ardua of the State; and, ignorant of our 
law, and too often unexpectedly so of the English law, 
they are as chancellors to decree in cases of the most 
important value to the colonists. Unfortunate colonists ! 
Mr. Drayton exclaims, by the minister abroad, thus are 
you delivered over a sacrifice at home to the ignorance 
and necessities of a stranger, by the hand of power im- 
posed upon you as a judge! This was no doubt true. 
Since its establishment until late years the Council had 
been formed of the best men of the colony. During the 
Royal government from 1729, in the Council had been 
found such men as William Bull, the father of the pres- 
ent Lieutenant Governor, and himself, Ralph Izard, Fran- 
cis Yonge, Alexander Skene, Arthur Middleton, Thomas 
Smith, James Kinloch, Joseph Wragg, Thomas Brough- 
ton, Thomas Waring, Sir John Colleton, Charles Pinck- 
ney, John Cleland, William Middleton, Joseph Blake, 
William Wragg, and Henry Middleton. Such men as 
these honestly advised the Royal Governor as to the 
needs and interests of the people. They were loyal 
advisers and councillors in the nature of a Privy Coun- 
cil. But now the two Draytons, father and son, and 
Blake and Elliott, were overruled by strangers and hire- 
lings calling themselves an Upper House of Parliament, 
and assuming to be a miniature House of Lords. These 
placemen were now ambitious of figuring in the troubles 
of the times and of illustrating their loyalty, and in this 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 713 

the native members of the board were at first afraid — if 
willing — to oppose them. Nay, so far from opposing 
them, they had stood by the late Governor in his absurd 
and vexatious stretch of prerogative in taking the Assem- 
bly to Beaufort and in his quarrel with the Commons; 
and William Henry Drayton was now to join them in an 
effort to provoke the Commons and to dictate to the 
Lieutenant Governor himself. 

Their first step was to volunteer their advice to the 
Lieutenant Governor upon the financial condition of the 
colony and to assume to instruct him as to his duties. 
On the 13th of August, 1773, they addressed his Honor a 
long communication upon the condition of the Treasury, 
which they claimed they had a right to supervise; for 
though they were not the immediate representatives of 
the people, yet they were among the guardians of the 
public. Upon examining the Treasury accounts, it ap- 
peared that on the first day of June last the sum of 
X127,674 was due on account of public duties, of which 
large sum only £10,000 were actually in the Treasury 
issuable upon the many and large demands to which it 
was liable; that various sums to the amount of £158,476 
had been drawn out of the Treasury by virtue of laws 
directing such sums advanced out of any of the funds to 
be replaced by a general tax, as usual. The trading part 
of the province, the Council declared, might now sin- 
cerely lament that a tax bill had not been passed since 
the year 1769. If the tax bills had been passed, they 
would as usual have replaced in the Treasury that large 
sum of £158,476, and by that means the sum of £168,476 
would actually be in the Treasury, issuable and ready, as 
it ought, to answer every legal demand. It was not the 
fault of the Upper House, they said, that the tax bill had 
not been passed. They had always been ready to give 



714 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

their concurrence to any tax bill framed upon the funda- 
mental 2^i"inciples of the constitution; but that if they 
had given their concurrence to any tax bill which had 
been brought them since the year 1769, they would have 
surrendered their rights as legislators and should thereby 
have betrayed the constitution, by which they were bound 
to regulate their conduct. They concluded by advising 
his Honor, in a somewhat dictatorial tone, to order the 
Attorney General to compel those persons who had been 
the longest indebted for public duties forthwith to pay 
into the public Treasury the sum of X50,000. 

The Lieutenant Governor replied politely, but curtly, 
that he would give such directions as might prevent 
alarming events relative to the Treasury, should take 
care to do so in such a manner as would create no dis- 
tress to any part of the community, and should create 
as few inconveniences to the persons concerned as could 
consist with the public service. 

The Council took great umbrage at this reply of his 
Honor, and adopted resolutions, which were prepared and 
reported by Mr. Stuart the Chief Justice and Mr. William 
Henry Drayton, declaring that it was not only the un- 
doubted right, but the indispensable duty, of the House at 
all times to examine the state of the public Treasury, and 
to address, consult, and advise the Governor in any matter 
relative thereto. That in their opinion the address of the 
Council to the Lieutenant Governor contained matter of 
the utmost importance to the public, and was at the same 
time conceived in terms both dutiful and respectful to his 
Honor. That the Council would, under every discourage- 
ment, loyally, dutifully, and huml)ly tender their counsel 
and advice when the credit of the country was at stake, 
and the rather as one branch of the legislature had hith- 
erto omitted to oppose its prudent care to avert the fatal 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 715 

consequences arising from the present deceiving state of 
public credit. 

Governor Bull was a man of as few words as his young 
nephew was of many, and with the wisdom and admirable 
tact which he displayed through all these troublesome 
times, he let the Chief Justice and his nephew have their 
say; but he continued unmoved in his own course. He 
precipitated no fresh trouble on the people by attempting 
to force out of a few the supplies the Commons had 
refused to grant. 

Mr. Drayton and his father, Mr. Blake and Mr. Elliott, 
went with the other councillors in this little tilt with the 
Lieutenant Governor; but the time had come when the 
native members of the board were to part company with 
the stipendiary strangers. A great number of spurious 
coin, Spanish half-joes, and counterfeit bills had got into 
the currenc}^, and the Commons' House had passed a bill 
for making it felony to counterfeit the paper currency or 
other money, and had sent it to the Council. Mr. Dray- 
ton and the other native member had endeavored to in- 
duce the Council to act upon the measure, but it was 
voted down, and the bill postponed. Upon this the two 
Draytons, father and son, entered a protest, because they 
conceived that the refusal to act upon this measure would 
be interpreted as a design to reject it, and that the delay 
would occasion a further disunion of the two houses and 
be detrimental to the King's service and the public good. 
Upon the adjournment of the Council, Mr. William Henry 
Drayton gave a copy of this protest of his father and him- 
self to Thomas Powell, printer of the Gazette^ who pub- 
lished it in his paper on the 30th of August, 1773. The 
next day the matter of this publication in the Grazette was 
brought up in the Council ; it was adjudged a high breach 
of privilege and contempt on the part of Powell, the 



716 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

printer, who was arrested and brought before the Council, 
and was informed that he must ask pardon. He answered 
that he had no intention by the publication to offend the 
honorable board; that, had he known it to be a breach of 
privilege, he certainly would not have made the publica- 
tion ; that if he had erred, it was owing to his inexperi- 
ence, and that he was very sorry for it. The Council 
was not satisfied with this disclaimer. Mr. Powell was 
ordered into the custody of the sergeant-at-arms ; and 
being brought in again, Mr. Powell was told that he 
must ask pardon without any "^wtZs " and ^^ Ifs^'' other- 
wise he would be committed to jail. To this Mr. Powell 
replied that, as he did not know he had committed any 
fault, it was hard to confess himself guilty and be obliged 
to beg ]3ardon ; but if he could be convinced that he had 
been guilty of a breach of privilege, he should be very 
willing to ask pardon. These answers were declared to 
be unsatisfactory, and such as the honor even of private 
gentlemen could not allow them to accept; that they 
manifested the most daring disrespect. Whereupon Mr. 
Powell was committed by an order of the Council, signed 
by Egerton Leigh, President, to the custody of Roger 
Pinckney, who was now Sheriff of Charlestown since the 
abolition of the office of Provost Marshal, and Powell was 
put in the common jail. 

It was upon this occasion that Edward Rutledge made 
his first appearance in the public affairs of South Caro- 
lina, in which he was from henceforth to be so conspicu- 
ous. He was not yet quite twenty-four 3'ears of age. 
He had first studied law with his brother, John Rutledge, 
but that not then being regarded in Carolina as enough, 
in 17G9 he had entered as a student in the Temple, Lon- 
don. He had just returned, and had been elected Avith 
William Wragg as a representative in the Commons for 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 717 

St. Helena, but bad declined to serve. ^ His election in 
connection witb Mr. Wiagg, a known Royalist of tbe most 
uncompromising character, would seem to indicate tbe 
supposed tenor of bis own views at tbis time, but be was 
now to enter tbe revolutionary struggle and to follow tbe 
lead of Cbristopber Gadsden ratber tban tbe more con- 
servative course of bis distinguisbed brotber. 

Under tbe act of 1712, providing for tbe application of 
tbe habeas corpus act, tbe writ migbt be made returnable 
before tbe Cbief Justice or any two of tbe Assistant Jus- 
tices. Tbe Cbief Justice and Assistant Judges were, as 
we bave seen, to be appointed by tbe King, and in prac- 
tice tbe Cbief Justice was so appointed, and was almost 
always a stranger from Great Britain; but tbe Assistant 
Judges, seldom professional lawyers, were commonly ap- 
pointed by tbe Governor from lay citizens of eminence, 
nor was sucb an appointment incompatible witb a seat in 
tbe Commons ; and it so bappened tbat at tbis time Rawlins 
Lowndes, tbe Speaker, and George Gabriel Powell, a 
member of tbe Commons' House from St. David's Parisb, 
were botb Assistant Judges. Mr. Rutledge selected tbese 
two Justices as tbe Judges before wbom be would sue 
out a habeas corpus for bis client, Tbomas Powell, tbe 
printer. Tbe curious spectacle was tbus presented of tbe 
Speaker and anotber member of tbe Commons' House sit- 
ting as judges to bear and determine upon tbe commit- 
ment of a person by order of tbe Attorney General and 
Cbief Justice sitting as members of tbe Council. It 
was a manifest continuance of tbe war between tbe two 
houses; and in tbis struggle tbe so-called Upper House 
was to be shaken to its very foundation. Tbe young 
lawyer who had undertaken Mr. Powell's case was fresh 
from tbe galleries of tbe House of Commons of Parlia- 

1 So. Ca. Gazette, May 17, 1773. 



718 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ment, where he had heard Pitt and Burke denounce the 
ministry and the Tories, and uphold the colonies in their 
resistance to the Royal measures. It was indeed a most 
auspicious occasion for the opening of a distinguished 
career, and well did Mr. Rutledge avail himself of the 
opportunity. His argument before the two Judges, as 
reported in the Gazette of the 13th of September, 1773, 
while presenting perhaps nothing which had not been 
advanced at one time or another in the frequent previous 
discussions of the subject, is an exceedingly able one. 
He did not hesitate to attack the constitution and powers 
of the body who had assumed to be the Upper House, and 
arrogated to itself the powers and claimed the dignity of 
a House of Lords. The warrant, he said, appeared on its 
face to be a commitment of the prisoner by the President 
of the Council for having published a part of the proceed- 
ings of the Upper House of Assembly, as in his opinion 
they had improperly styled themselves ; it was necessary, 
therefore, to meet the question fairly, and to contend that 
the Council in this province were not men of such high 
consequence as to be allowed the power of depriving a free 
man of his liberty for what they should imagine a breach 
of privilege or contempt. The reason which induced him 
to deny them such power was because they were no branch 
of the legislature at all, and of consequence could not be 
indued with the rights and privileges of the House of 
Lords in Great Britain. The idea of their being a branch 
of the legislature was so truly ridiculous that he should 
not have thought it worthy of notice had it not received 
the sanction of the opinion of several respectable charac- 
ters. He would show that, although the members of the 
Council for some time arrogated to themselves the rights 
of the House of Lords, they were destitute of those essen- 
tials which were necessary to constitute so respectable a 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 719 

body. Such power could be derived in but one of two 
ways. Either from the known law of the land or from 
long immemorial usage. He was warranted from the 
strictest search and the fullest inquiry to pronounce that 
there existed no law whatever which had given them such 
extreme power. Had they, he asked, immemorial usage 
to justify this imprisonment? The shortness of the time 
excluded such an idea. The non-exercise of such a power 
during this time was a strong argument to prove the 
want of it. The Council was nothing more than a Privy 
Council to assist the Governor with their advice. The 
House of Lords was a permanent body, not dependent 
upon the will or removal at the pleasure of the Crown. 
The Council in the province, like the Privy Council at 
home, were entirely so. The House of Lords had no vote 
at elections. Why? Because the powers would not then 
be equally possessed. The Upper House would have too 
much weight for the security of the State. The members 
of the Council here have a right to vote for members of 
the Assembly. Why? Because they are not looked upon 
to be of any consequence at all. The House of Lords 
were the balancing power between the King and the 
people to see that on the one hand no attack was made 
upon the prerogative of the Crown, and on the other that 
no infringement was made upon the liberties of the sub- 
ject. The members of the Council were a dead weight in 
the constitution, and ever would be so long as a Council 
is dependent upon the will of the King. Could such 
people be wantonly trusted with the freedom of the sub- 
ject ? Should it be in the power of the Privy Council — or, 
rather, two of the King's officers — to deprive the subject 
of his personal liberty? "I do boldly deny the right," 
he exclaimed, "for the King has not so excessive a power 
even in his Royal hands, and it will be going far to assert 



720 HISTORY OF SOUTFI CAROLINA 

that those to whom a power is delegated can Jiave a higher 
or more extensive use of it than him from whom the power 
is derived. The power of commitment by the King and 
Council, it is true, was formerly exercised, but it was 
held to be so extremely unconstitutional and oppressive 
that it was checked so early as the reign of the wicked 
and miserable Charles. I hope that lawlessness will not 
be tolerated from the hands of plebeian authority, when 
it has been plucked up as a weed from the flowers of the 
prerogative." 

There could be no doubt about the issue of such a trial. 
It has been said that no judge can be expected to decide 
against his political party. But in this case the Judge 
was himself the head of his political party, and the ques- 
tion before him was of the essence of the controversy 
which had been going on between the two houses, and 
which had now assumed the aspect of a judicial question. 
Mr. Lowndes did not attempt to conceal or ignore the 
embarrassment of the equivocal position. " From the rank 
and station I am in, and from my connection with the 
Commons' House of Assembly, I may be presumed," he 
said, "to be under some bias and prepossession in favor 
of that House and its privileges. I confess I am so, but 
I trust it is no undue bias or prepossession, no propensity 
to exclude from any other body of men, or any other part 
of the community, any rights, privileges, or immunities 
whatever to which they may on a fair inquiry be found to 
be entitled. It was insisted, however, that I should grant 
the habeas corpus^ — that it was a right, — and it would 
ver}^ ill have become one to have been disobedient to so 
good and salutary a law, although it had not been enforced 
with penal sanctions, as it has, to secure its execution." 
Having thus justified himself in sitting in a case v/hich 
indeed, as he intimated, he was bound under penalty to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 721 

do if the case had been brought before him purely in his 
judicial character, he proceeded to announce a clear, calm, 
and very able opinion, following in the main the line of 
Mr. Rutledge's argument, and concluding: — 

"The commitment, therefore, in my opinion, is to be 
considered merely as the commitment of the Privy Coun- 
cil. And in that case it has no other authority than if 
done by a private magistrate. The subject has his remedy 
by habeas corpus in this case; and we are to consider 
whether the matter charged is an offence at law, and if 
an offence, whether it is bailable or not. 

"And I am of opinion that it is no offence at law; 
that the paper referred to in the commitment, being a 
protest from two members of Council against the pro- 
ceedings of that board in a certain matter depending 
before the Council, and required by one of its members 
to be printed by the prisoner, might lawfully, legally, 
and warrantably be printed by the prisoner in the way of 
his profession. The more especially as it was unaccom- 
panied with any remarks, observations, or additions of his 
own, but simply and literally, as it was received by the 
prisoner from one of tlie members of the Council. And 
it is not clear to me that even the House of Lords would 
include such a paper under the general idea of proceed- 
ings of the House for the which they would punish a 
printer who published it. I am of opinion, therefore, for 
ordering the prisoner released." 

The Council thus defeated, and their arrogant assump- 
tion rebuked, turned upon Mr. Drayton, their member, 
whose conduct had provoked them to take so false a step, 
and resolved that the protest entered in the journal, 
and which had been published, was false and scandalous. 
But this was surely an afterthought; for, if so, why had 
they allowed it to be spread on the journal in the first 

VOL. n — 3 A 



722 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

instance? The Council also applied to the Commons' 
House for redress against Mr. Lowndes and Mr. Powell, 
their members; but the House of Assembly, instead of 
complying with this requisition, avowed the doctrines 
which the Justices had promulgated, returned the thanks 
of the House to them for the same, requested the Gov- 
ernor to suspend the members of the Council who had 
voted the commitment, and finally addressed his Majesty 
for their removal. Upon this the Council, finding their 
legislative authority and privilege so openly and directly 
attacked, lost no time in forwarding an address to the 
Throne on the subject ; and the Assembly, nothing back- 
ward, also forwarded their complaints to the King to be 
presented to his Majesty by Mr. Garth, their agent. The 
controversy, thus removed to London, was continued there. 
Sir Egerton Leigh published a pamphlet entitled Consid- 
erations on Certain Political Transactions of the Province 
of South Carolina, which was answered by another, bear- 
ing strongly the impress of William Henry Drayton, 
which charged that the Council would never have been 
capable of such conduct but for the advice of one of the 
worst and most abandoned of men. "Is it the Baronet's 
idea," asks the writer, "that the Press is to be only a 
vehicle for falsehood and abuse against the Assembly of 
the people? But when the proceedings of the Council 
are in question, then must the seal of silence under the 
law of imprisonment be fixed upon it! " 

The answer of Mr. Garth, the agent, to the Commons' 
House upon the subject of their petition to the King was 
not received until March, 1774. In his letter Mr. Garth 
informed the Assembly that, having noticed that the 
Council had sent an address to the King touching the 
discharge of the printer, he had waited on Lord Dart- 
mouth to acquaint him with the orders he had received 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 728 

and to desire that the Council's address might not be 
presented until he could prepare a petition to the King 
on the part of the Commons, so that the whole affair 
might be under consideration at the same time ; that Lord 
Dartmouth had intimated to him that if the petition 
would be formed upon the principle that the Council was 
not an Ui^per House and a branch of the legislature^ no 
proceedings would be had upon it, as his Majesty's Coun- 
cil could not admit that the established constitution of 
the colony should be brought in question. Mr. Garth 
wrote that he had applied to Mr. Dunning, who thought 
it would be difficult to maintain that the Council was 
not an Upper House ; yet it did not follow that the privi- 
lege claimed by them of committing for contempt was 
incidental, and that he thought the exercise of the power 
in question unwarranted. By the same packet which 
brought Mr. Garth's letter to the Commons, Lord Dart- 
mouth advised the Lieutenant Governor that the King's 
final determination would be sent over in the February 
packet. But the matter was overlooked by the minister 
amidst the hurry of providing against transactions in 
other parts of America of far greater importance, and 
which were so to involve the province of South Carolina 
as to supersede the necessity of a decision upon these 
questions. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

1773-74 

We have seen that the non-importation agreement had 
broken down by its own inherent weakness throughout the 
colonies, and was finally abandoned in this province at 
the meeting under the Liberty Tree on the 13th of 
December, 1770. It had not, however, been altogether 
in vain; it had induced the King to relax his measures, 
and the duties which had been imposed upon glass, red 
lead, and other articles were repealed, excepting that laid 
on the importation of tea, which had been retained as 
an assertion of the right, while Parliament admitted the 
impolicy of its enforcement. Against this assertion of 
right on the part of the government, effort had been made 
to continue the agreement, but had failed. The disaffec- 
tion in South Carolina might have ended here had it not 
been fermented by other causes peculiar to this province. 
His Excellency, Lord Charles Greville Montagu, had re- 
turned to the province from his visit to England in an ill 
humor, grumbling about his accommodation in Charles- 
town, calling the General Assembly to Beaufort, and then 
returning them immediately to Charlestown, and dissolv- 
ing them upon a foolish quarrel with the Speaker about 
the journal before any business had been transacted. 

Then the stipendiary councillors — small placemen 
excepting their positions as crumbs from the table of the 
Board of Trade — had, under the lead of Sir Egerton Leigh, 
endeavored to demonstrate their subserviency by a con- 

724 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT T25 

troversy with the Commons, while themselves assuming 
the importance of a House of Peers. The colony had 
been put to the expense of buying out Mr. Cumberland, 
in order to have the privilege of enlarging the judicial 
system so as to meet the demands of the growing popula- 
tion. Then the young men, returning from the Univer- 
sities in England, found all the places of honor or profit 
filled by ignorant and often worthless and sometimes 
vulgar favorites of ministers. These causes of discon- 
tent were all at work raising up a strong party and sen- 
timent against the distant government of the mother 
country. 

On the 10th of May, 1773, an act of Parliament received 
the Royal assent, allowing a drawback of duties on the 
exportation of tea to any of the colonies in America, to 
enable the East India Company to export tea duty free. 
The East India Company thereupon prepared to send 
large consignments to the colonies. Three ships laden 
with tea arrived in Boston harbor, but were not suffered 
to land, and, as is well known, were boarded by citizens 
from the town, and three hundred and forty chests were 
emptied into the waves. Not long after this, the ship 
London., Captain Alexander Curling, Master, arrived in 
Charlestown, having on board two hundred and fifty-seven 
chests shipped by the East India Company. Upon this a 
general meeting of the inhabitants of the town was called 
two days after, and it was claimed that at this meeting it 
had been determined that teas made subject to duty 
should not be imported; but this was denied, and the 
people were again convened on the 17th of December for 
the purpose of ascertaining what was the real public 
opinion in a matter of so much consequence. After 
much debate at this second meeting, it was carried " that 
tea ought not to be landed, received, or vended in this 



726 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

colony, and that no teas ought to be imported by any per- 
son whatever while the act imposing the unconstitutional 
duty remained unrepealed." When notified of this reso- 
lution, the consignees agreed not to accept of the consign- 
ment nor to interfere in any shape with the tea. 

But the matter was not so easily adjusted; still another 
meeting was called that the sense of the community might 
be better ascertained, and that if the refusal to receive 
the tea should be persisted in, a general agreement might 
be formed on the subject. This would have been but a 
renewal of the non-importation agreement, which had 
already been tried and found inefficacious. But it now 
transpired that the opposers of the administration were 
not all united on this question. Many of them were of 
opinion that the East India Company was nothing more 
than a private merchant, and that no distinction should 
be taken in their case, nor exception to the landing of 
their tea, as none had been taken to landing consignments 
of that article from private merchants in London since the 
"breaking through" of the non-importation agreement 
three years before. They pointed out that on the very 
day when the first meeting took place, parcels of tea were 
landed as well from Captain Curling's ship as from two 
other vessels which were the property of private importers ; 
that the duties had been paid on them, and that the teas 
had even passed by that very meeting of the people in 
their conveyance to their respective owners. Many de- 
sired delay, at least until they could receive accounts of 
the action of other colonies on the subject. In the mean- 
while anonymous letters were sent to Captain Curling, 
threatening to fire his ship, the London, unless she were 
moved from the wharf. Others were sent to the owners 
of the wharf at which the London lay, threatening to fire 
it unless the ship was obliged to quit the wharf; and 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 727 

others were sent to masters of vessels lying near, warning 
them of their danger in lying contiguous to a ship con- 
taining so odious a cargo. These letters gave much 
alarm to those concerned, and they laid them before the 
Lieutenant Governor. The Collector also applied to 
him for protection in the execution of his duty, stating 
that in a few days he should be obliged to seize the teas, 
unless before that time the duties should be paid. 

This was a trying occasion to Lieutenant Governor 
Bull. On the one hand, his duty imperiously called on 
him to support the Collector in carrying into execution 
the act of Parliament respecting the duties on the tea; 
while on the other, he well knew the hostile opinion of 
the people on the subject, and that the ministry had fur- 
nished him with no means of supporting his authority. 
The only thing which the Governor could do in this 
emergency was to convene his Council, which he did on 
the 31st of December, 1773. Sir Egerton Leigh, Attor- 
ney General, John Draj^ton, and Chief Justice Gordon 
attended, but all that they could advise was that the 
sheriff and peace officers should be notified to be in 
readiness to preserve the peace when the Collector should 
seize the tea. This notification was accordingly issued, 
and the Collector succeeded at an early hour some days 
afterward in seizing and landing the tea without any 
opposition, and storing it in vaults under the exchange, 
scarce any persons being present, as it was not supposed 
the seizure and landing would have taken place before 
noon. 

The meeting of the people respecting the tea had been 
adjourned to the seventh day of January, 1774, at which 
time some of the principal opposers of its landing attended. 
The public mind, however, had meanwhile cooled, and very 
few persons were present. It was therefore adjourned for 



728 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

a fortnight, in the hope that the approaching session of 
the General Assembly might bring many to Charlestown 
who would afford aid on the occasion. 

The Lieutenant Governor, however, thought proper to 
prorogue the Assembly to the 1st of March, and the 
people, watching the executive measures, adjourned their 
meeting likewise to the third day of the same month. 
The General Assembly was allowed to meet at this time, 
but no meeting of the citizens took place, though the 
mechanics were as busy as ever. They seem now to 
have given up the shade of the Liberty Tree for their ren- 
dezvous. A printed slip, dated March 15, called a rally 
of them in the lodge-room, in Lodge Alley, at seven o'clock 
in the evening; for upon the present conduct, it declared, 
depends whether they shall in future be taxed by any other 
than representatives of their own choice, and whether the 
hitherto respectable province shall preserve its reputation 
or sink into great contempt. 

But the leaders of the people had other more important 
measures in hand than these chests of tea which had 
already been deposited in the vaults of the custom-house, 
about which they were themselves divided. The Com- 
mons seized upon the obstruction to a tax bill which the 
" Additional Instruction " imposed, and with the terms 
of which they would not comply, to adopt a fiscal measure 
which was to add vastly to their power and influence, and 
correspondingly to diminish the importance of the Coun- 
cil. This was accomplished under the specious guise of 
furnishing relief to the public creditors, who had not 
been paid from 1769. By resolutions of the House they 
provided for the payment of these debts with interest 
to the 1st of January, 1773. The scheme was this: the 
Clerk of the Commons' House was required to issue to 
such of the public creditors as should demand them cer- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 729 

tificates for any sums within the amounts of their respec- 
tive liquidated accounts. These certificates stated the 
sum in each allowed, and declared that public provision 
would be made for its payment. They were counter- 
signed by five members of the House, appointed for the 
purpose. 

Such an act of justice to public creditors, who had for 
years waited a settlement of their claims to unsuspecting 
individuals, says Draj'ton in his Memoirs, would have 
presented to view nothing more than an honest and nec- 
essar}'- use of legislative power. But the fact was, the 
Commons had now a further object in view. They aimed 
at an emission of about £200,000 as a circulating medium. 
The necessities of the times greatly favored this fiscal 
operation. There was no prospect that the public debts 
would be discharged by a regular tax bill, and the Treas- 
ury, on calling in the public duties, had well-nigh drawn 
in all the circulating money. The little remaining cur- 
rency with the utmost difficulty kept the commercial 
wheel in motion. All these causes combining, placed the 
Commons in a situation that, if they could offer the pub- 
lic anything which bore the appearance of paper money, 
it was scarcely possible they could miss their aim of 
showing to the Crown of how little importance the 
"Additional Instruction" had become, and that by a 
measure the more alarming to the Crown, as thereby the 
Commons of their own authority created and issued what 
served all the purposes of money. 

Having so planned and adjusted this very important 
measure, the Commons, by a message to the Lieutenant 
Governor the next day, stated they had finally arranged 
the public accounts, and complained in severe terms of 
the Council for having so long obstructed the passing 
of tax bills in the usual way. They informed his Honor 



730 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that by the measures they had taken it was now unnec- 
essary to prepare a tax bill. Then they went on to say, 
that should his Honor be pleased to consider by what 
number and kind of men a stop had been put to public 
business for many years in the colony, they being persons 
most of whom were exclusively supported by the offices 
which they held, and that even at the will of the minis- 
try, unconnected also with the colony either by birth or 
property, his Honor would have great reason to admire 
the loyalty of the people, which even gross insults, added 
to the most malignant injuries, had not been able to 
shake. That to prevent as much as they were able the 
absolute ruin of many creditors, they had ordered certifi- 
cates of their liquidated claims to be issued to each per- 
son requiring them; and they concluded that, as at 
present they could not do any other act conducing to the 
public good, they desired leave to adjourn. 

All this was very fine, and that part in regard to the 
councillors was very true; but what had called forth this 
"Additional Instruction" but their own improper sub- 
version of the public funds to the support of a disrepu- 
table private individual with whom the province had no 
concern? On the other hand, what could the Council 
say or do? It was true that they were nearly all petty 
foreign placemen and intruders in the colony. They 
were fully aware of the consequences to which this meas- 
ure might lead, but they could do nothing more than pass 
a resolution censuring it as being unprecedented and un- 
parliamentary, as depending only on the faith of one 
branch of the legislature. 

On the 26th of March Lieutenant Governor Bull 
returned answer to the message from the Commons. He 
was silent as to their complaint against the Council and 
the measure of issuing the certificates, but he complied 



UNDEK THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 731 

with their wish to adjourn; he did not, however, think 
the situation of affairs woukl permit a long recess. He 
allowed them therefore to adjourn to the 3d of May. 
And now, says Drayton, the Commons in private labored 
to bring to maturity the measure which, in their public 
character, they devised. They were aware its success in 
a great degree depended upon the mercantile members of 
the community, and they consequently made application 
to the Chamber of Commerce, which body desired time to 
consider a proposition of such importance. The public 
was much excited, as the measure was sudden and un- 
looked for, it having been the work of but three or four 
days. Its immediate utility alone caught the eyes and 
senses of the mass of the people ; but careful observers did 
not fail to see its tendency to diminish the powers and 
consequence of the Council, while in the same degree it 
increased those of the Commons. They could not fail to 
observe how nearly the measure approached that of the 
Long Parliament in the year 1642, when of its OAvn 
authority orders were passed for bringing in money and 
plate, whose value should be replaced with eight per cent 
interest, and for which they engaged the public faith. 
The measure in effect created and issued money without 
the consent of the Crown, than which nothing was more 
irreconcilable to the principles of the British Constitution 
or injurious to the Royal prerogative. But whatever men 
thought of the certificates, the necessity of the times was 
so urgent that the Chamber of Commerce agreed to receive 
them in payment, and they immediately went into general 
circulation. At first, indeed, they were received under 
apprehensions which rendered each person unwilling to 
keep them by him, and caused him to pass them away as 
soon as possible; but greater confidence soon ensued, and 
the certificates became a medium of general convenience. 



732 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

No public creditor refused to receive them from the Clerk 
but Lieutenaut Governor Bull, who thought he owed that 
much self-denial to his public station. The most happy 
effects were produced, and the whole community was 
greatly accommodated by the seasonable relief they 
affoi'ded. 

But now accounts arrived from England that on the 
7th of March Lord North had delivered to the House of 
Commons a message from the King relating to the dis- 
turbances in Boston, and that he had brought in a bill to 
remove the custom-house from Boston and to discontinue 
the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, any 
goods at that port or harbor. The accounts also advised 
that the act was to be enforced by a squadron of men-of- 
war and a body of troops. 

It is worth the interruption of the narrative of these 
stirring events at home to refer to the fact that the few 
Americans who were then in London — some of them 
young men who had just finished their education and 
were about to return to tlieir native country — j^resented 
by the hands of Lord Shelburne a petition to the House of 
Commons against the Boston Port Bill, and a memorial to 
the King, the latter concluding with this appeal to his 
Majesty: "Your petitioners and their countrymen have 
been ever most zealously attached to your Majesty's per- 
son and family. It is therefore with inexpressible afflic- 
tion that they see an attempt in these proceedings against 
them to change the principle of obedience to the govern- 
ment from love of the subject toward their sovereign, 
founded on the opinion of his wisdom, justice, and be- 
nevolence, into the dread of absolute power and laws of 
extreme rigor insupportable to a free people. Should the 
bills above mentioned receive your Royal sanction, your 
Majesty's faithful subjects will be overwhelmed with 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 733 

grief and despair." The petition was signed by thirty 
Americans, fifteen of whom were from South Carolina. ^ 
These proceedings of the British Parliament threw the 
inhabitants of Boston into the greatest consternation. 
Town meetings were called to deliberate on the alarming 
state of public affairs. At one of them, on May 13, 1774, 
an appeal was made to the other colonies to stop all 
importation from Great Britain and the West Indies 
until the blockade of Boston harbor should be repealed. 
A copy of this vote as it was termed was immediately sent 
to the other provinces, and upon its arrival it was presented 
to a number of the principal gentlemen in Charlestown. 
These gentlemen called a meeting of the inhabitants of 
the town, which took place at the tavern at the corner of 
Broad and Church streets, which had been Mr. Dillon's, 
and was now known as the '.' City Tavern " or " The 
Corner." At this meeting it was determined to request 
a meeting of the inhabitants of the province generally, to 
be holden in Charlestown on the 6th of July, and circular 
letters were sent by express to every parish and to the more 
distant parts of the province, addressed to such men, it 
was said, as were of principal influence. Those letters 
stated the blockade of Boston, urged opposition to that 
measure, and recommended a meeting of the landholders 
in the different parishes to deliver their sentiments and 
to appoint delegates to act for them in the approaching 

1 Stephen Sayre, William Lee, Arthur Lee, EdnioncI Jennings, Joshua 
Johnson, Daniel Bowley, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Buston, Edward 
Bancroft, Thomas Bromtield, John Boylston, John Ellis, John Williams, 
John Allyne, llalph Izard., William II. Gibbes, William Blake, Isaac 
3I()tt(', Henry Laurence (Laurens), Thomas Pinckneij, Jacob Bead, John 
F. Grimke, Philip Neyle, Edward Fenviicke, Edvmrd Femoicke, Jr., John 
Peronneau, William Middleton, William Middleton, Jr., lialph Izard, Jr., 
and William Ileyward. Those marked in italics were from South Carolina. 
Memoirs of the lievohition (Drayton), vol. I, 110. 



734 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

general meeting. In his Memoirs, Mr. Drayton says 
that this was the first attemjjt to collect a meeting of 
the people on so constitutional a principle; and as all 
new attempts are imperfect, so was this. The people 
were at liberty to elect as many deputies as they pleased. 
In some parishes large numbers were chosen, while St. 
Andrew's Parish elected none, as its white men being 
few and near the town, most of them desired to attend 
personally. The South Carolina Crazette of the 11th of 
July states that in consequence of the advertisements of 
the committee, and other means used by them to obtain 
the sense of the whole colony, the meeting on the 6th, 
which was held under the Exchange, was the Largest 
Body of the most Respectable Inhabitants that had ever 
been seen together upon anj^^ public occasion here, or 
perhaps in America; for gentlemen of the greatest prop- 
erty and character, animated with ardent zeal to relieve 
their suffering brethren and preserve their own freedom, 
notwithstanding the extreme inconvenience of the season, 
attended from even the remotest parts of the country. 
Drayton says that one hundred and four deputies repre- 
sented all parts of the colony except G-reenville County^ 
St. John's, Colleton, and Christ Church parishes, which 
were without delegations ; but this statement is somewhat 
of an anachronism, inasmuch as Greenville County was 
not established until 1785, two years after the Revo- 
lution. Colonel George Gabriel Powell, the Assistant 
Judge who had taken part with Rawlins Lowndes in 
discharging the printer arrested by the Council, and who 
attended as a representative of St. David's Parish, took 
the chair. The first action taken by the convention aban- 
doned entirely its representative character; for it was 
determined that the votes should be given by each person 
present and not by parishes, and "that whoever came 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 735 

there might give his vote." This gave the whole poAver 
to the mechanics in Charlestown and their friends of the 
moving party, who could now crowd in and vote down 
any opposition. But notwithstanding this, the moderate 
party made a struggle. 

The business of the day was opened with reading the 
communications from the northern colonies. Then reso- 
lutions touching American rights and grievances were 
adopted. These declared: That his Majesty's subjects 
in North America owe the same allegiance to the Crown 
of Great Britain as is due from his subjects born within 
that kingdom. That the King's subjects in America are 
entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties enjoyed 
by natural-born subjects within the Kingdom of Great 
Britain. That taxes should not be imposed on the people 
but by their own consent, given personally or by their 
representatives. That all trials for any crime whatever 
committed and done in the colony ought to be had and 
conducted in the colony, according to the fixed and 
known course of proceeding. That the statute of 35 
Henry VIII, chap. 2, entitled, "An act for the trial of 
Treasons committed out of the King's Dominions," does 
not and cannot extend to any crimes committed in any of 
his Majesty's colonies. That the three late acts of Par- 
liament relative to Boston are of the most alarming 
nature to all his Majesty's subjects in America, and, 
although levelled at the people of Boston, they glar- 
ingly show if the inhabitants of that town are intimi- 
dated into a mean submission to those acts, the like are 
designed for all the colonies, when not even the shadow 
of liberty to his person or of security to his property will 
be left to any of his Majesty's subjects residing on the 
American continent. Wherefore every justifiable means 
ought to be tried to procure a repeal of those acts immedi- 



736 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

ately relative to Boston, and also all others affecting the 
constitutional rights and liberties of America in general. 

To effect these great points, says Drayton, two measures 
were proposed: (1) to adopt the Boston vote of the 13th 
of May; and (2) to send deputies to a General Congress. 
The discussion developed great differences of opinion. 
All parties agreed on the proposition of sending deputies ; 
but the Boston vote did not meet so universal a sup- 
port. This last measure therefore was first taken up and 
considered. 

In favor of the Boston vote it was urged that Ameri- 
can lives and property were exposed to be taken at the 
mandate of a British minister; that the men would be 
exposed to slavery, their wives and daughters to the out- 
rages of a soldiery. To avert these dangers something 
vigorous was to be done; something that might shake 
even Majesty itself. That a measure of non-exportation 
and non-importation seemed, above all others, best calcu- 
lated to force a repeal of the late acts. It was a constitu- 
tional measure. For what power had a right to compel 
the people to grow, export, and sell commodities of any 
kind, or to purchase or import commodities from any 
State? That such a measure taking place in America 
Avould ruin the British trade to those dominions, and 
thereby shake the firmness of Parliament. That should 
the measure not be adopted, the colonies by their im- 
portations would preserve to the British manufacturers 
that support which they had been accustomed to receive 
from American trade, whereby the}' would be supine 
and not join the American demand for a re^^eal. In ad- 
dition to this, the remittances from the colonies would 
enable the people of England to employ those means to 
assist them in enslaving the colonies; whereas, being 
witliholden, the national credit of Great Britain would be 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 737 

shaken, and the measures of administration be infinitely 
embarrassed. 

How the men of Carolina were to be saved from slavery, 
and the women from outrage, and Majesty itself shaken, 
by so simple and peaceful a measure as non-intercourse 
was not explained, as far as the reports of the debates 
have reached us. Nor did the advocates of the measure 
suggest any means whereby such an agreement, which had 
been already tried, and which had failed, in 1770, could 
now be better enfoiced. Nor could they give any guar- 
antee that it would not be broken by the other colonies 
and South Carolina be again left alone, the only colony 
attempting to enforce it. Where was the protest which 
John Rutledge, Peter Manigault, Charles Pinckney, and 
John McKenzie had been appointed by the last meeting 
under the Liberty Tree to prepare, protesting against the 
northern colonies for deserting the people of Carolina in 
the measure undertaken in their behalf and upon their 
invitation? What new argument was now advanced to 
induce another effort in this direction? 

Against this proposition from Boston, Mr. Drayton 
says, it was therefore answered that such a measure 
ought not to take place until all others had failed of 
success; for its operation would be violent both among 
ourselves and the people of England. That thousands in 
this colony would be ruined by it. That the people in 
the interior were averse to so harsh a measure; neither 
was it certain whether united America would approve and 
sui)port it. That nothing less than unanimity among all 
the colonies in executing one plan of conduct could affect 
measures in Great Britain; and as the general opinion 
seemed to point to a General Congress, so only in that 
Congress could such a plan of conduct be formed and 
agreed upon. 

VOL. II — 3 b 



738 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

The debate was warm, and without coming to any deter- 
mination the subject Avas dropped, and the meeting turned 
their attention to consider the proposal of sending deputies 
to the intended Congress. Here another warm debate arose 
as to the number of deputies who should be appointed, 
and the powers with which they should be invested. With- 
out coming to any conclusion on these points, the meeting 
took a recess to an hour in the afternoon. 

In the afternoon the meeting again convened to deter- 
mine on the points they were considering; when by a 
majority of eleven, says Mr. Drayton, it was carried that 
there should be five deputies, and that they should have 
unlimited powers ; but it appears this vote was subject to 
a reconsideration. 

The next day, the 7th of July, the convention again 
met, and the measures of non-exportation and non-impor- 
tation were again warmly debated. It was urged that 
before the measure should be adopted the General Con- 
gress ought to send a deputation with a petition and 
remonstrance to the Throne, and if, after that, America 
remained unredressed, it would be time enough to break 
off all commerce with Great Britain. A vote was then 
taken, and the proposition of non-exportation and non- 
importation was rejected. The people had no idea of 
renewing the experiment of 1769-70. 

The debate on the powers of the deputies was then 
again renewed. Mr. Rawlins Lowndes, who was then 
the Speaker of the Commons' House, broached the subject 
which was the main cause of the hesitancy of very many of 
those who were in earnest in their opposition to the gov- 
ernment and determined supporters of the principle of 
no taxation without representation, — and that was the 
apprehension that the real purpose and design of New 
England was for a dissolution of the relations between the 



UKDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 739 

colonies and the mother country. There doubtless existed 
thoughout the colonies, says Mr. Drayton, an opinion 
that Massachusetts gentlemen, and especially those of 
Boston, affected to dictate and take the lead in conti- 
nental measures ; but while tliis jealousy was no doubt a 
cause of reluctance in following their lead, the apprehension 
that they meditated the ulterior purpose of actual indepen- 
dence of Great Britain was a far more serious objection to 
committing this colony to a Congress to be controlled by 
New England influences. Upon this point Mr. Lowndes 
urged that it was well known that the New England 
colonies denied the superintending power of Parliament, 
a doctrine which he declared no one here admitted. He 
argued that unless the deputies from this colony appeared 
in Congress with limited powers, being outnumbered by 
the northern deputies, they, and consequently their con- 
stituents, would be bound by votes to principles which they 
absolutely denied. In this declaration, which Mr. Drayton 
admits was the prevailing opinion of the colony, Mr. 
Lowndes predicted exactly what actually happened. For, 
as we shall see, the South Carolina delegation, though pur- 
posely unauthorized to join in any act of independence, 
after at first, with Pennsylvania, voting against the Dec- 
laration of Independence, were persuaded into signing it, 
though disapproving its adoption. 

But we anticipate. It was then resolved that five 
deputies should by ballot be elected on the part and 
behalf of the colony, to meet the deputies of the other 
colonies of North America in General Congress, the first 
Monday in September next, at Philadelphia, or at any 
other time and place that may be generally agreed upon, 
with full power and authority in behalf of them and their 
constituents, "ifo concert., agree to, and eff'ecttially prosecute 
such leijal measures as in the opinion of those deputies^ and 



740 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the deputies of the other colonies^ should he most likely to 
obtain a repeal of the late acts of Parliament and a redress 
of American grievances.^' 

This resolution constituting the authority of the depu- 
ties, it will be observed, was carefully worded so as to 
exclude the power to do anything more than to agree 
u[)on legal measures . . . most likely to obtain a repeal of 
the objectionable acts. The fight was to be made within 
the Kingdom of Great Britain. The people of Carolina 
were generally willing to resist and, if necessary, to fight 
as the Barons had for Magna Carta, and as the Parlia- 
mentarians had against the Stuarts; but it was to be a 
struggle within the Kingdom — such a struggle as that 
in which Pitt and the Whig Lords could lead them. 
They were still devoted to the mother country. They 
prided themselves upon being a part of it. It was a 
political struggle in English politics, in which they were 
willing to engage, as their ancestors before had often 
done, even to the extent of taking up arms ; but this must 
all be done within the dominion of England. They 
abhorred the very idea of separation. 

The Conservative party had thus, as they conceived, se- 
cured instructions to the deputies whicli Avould prevent 
the possibility of any action tending to a severance of the 
dependence of the colony upon the mother country, but 
they were not content with this; they now desired to 
secure the election of such gentlemen as deputies as were 
themselves in sympathy with their views. The Chamber 
of Commerce, which had lent such timely assistance to 
the Commons in their issue of the certificates, were now 
with equal spirit opposed to any measure of non-exporta- 
tion or non-importation, and they desired such deputies 
elected as were against the adoption of that measure. 
All parties were agreed upon two out of the five to be 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 741 

chosen. These were Henry Middleton and John Rutledge. 
The struggle was over the selection of the other three. 
The merchants made up a ticket consisting of Henry 
Middleton, John Rutledge, Rawlins Lowndes^ Charles 
P'mckney, and Miles Breivton. The other party put up 
as their candidates, Henry Middleton, John Rutledge, 
Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch, and Edward Rut- 
ledge. The merchants unwisely assembled and went to 
the polls as a body, carrying with them their clerks, to 
vote for Lowndes, Pinckney, and Brewton. Upon this 
the other party took the alarm, and ran to all parts of the 
town and, collecting the people, brought them to the 
polls. The result of the resolution of the convention 
that whoever came there might vote was, as we have 
pointed out, entirely to destroy whatever character it had 
as a representative body of the province, and to lower 
its proceedings to an irregular scramble for the votes of 
the people of the town. In this struggle, as might have 
been anticipated, the mechanics got the better of the mer- 
chants. Gadsden, Lynch, and Edward Rutledge were 
declared elected. Edward Rutledge, in a letter to Ralph 
Izard, says his party was elected by a great majority, — 
three hundred and ninety-seven. ^ The convention proper 
was composed, as we have seen, of but one hundred and 
four members. 

The next day, July 8, the meeting again assembled. 
They now resolved that a committee of ninety-nine per- 
sons be appointed to act as a general committee, and 
should continue in authority until the next general meet- 
ing. This committee was to have power to correspond 
with the committees of the other colonies and to do all 
other matters and things necessary for carrying the reso- 
lutions of the general meeting into execution. The gen- 

1 Correspondence of Ralph Izard of South Carolina, vol. I, 5. 



742 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

eral meeting then proceeded to nominate the members of 
the general committee. They named fifteen mechanics 
and fifteen merchants to represent Charlestown and sixty- 
nine planters to represent the other parts of the prov- 
ince. Their proceeding, Mr. Drayton mildly observes, 
was rather unconstitutional, as the different districts and 
parishes did not choose the sixty-nine planters who were 
to represent them. They however, he says, acquiesced 
in the nomination, being sensible it proceeded from the 
best intentions and the urgency of the occasion. But 
mere apparent acquiescence was not what was wanted in 
a revolutionary party ; active cooperation was necessary. 
This assumption on the part of this body, controlled as it 
was not only by the influence, but actually by the votes, 
of the town, was not likely to win to its cause the people 
of the interior, who were opposed to the whole movement, 
and whose opposition was in a great measure owing to 
their jealousy of the very influence which thus dominated 
the convention. The acquiescence of which Mr. Drayton 
speaks was in many instances mere sullen silence. 

The general meeting having thus brought matters to a 
conclusion, and Colonel Powell, their chairman, having 
prepared minutes of their proceedings, was dissolved. 

While this Congress had failed to adopt the suggestion 
of the Boston vote to come into a joint resolution to stop 
all importation and exportation, South Carolina was the 
first to minister to the needs of the town, sending early 
in June two hundred barrels of rice, and promising eight 
hundred more — a promise which was more than fulfilled. 
A committee of the most prominent citizens voluntarily 
undertook the collection of contributions in money and 
in supplies for the relief of the blockaded port; and by 
an account published by the committee appointed by the 
town of Boston to receive the donations of the sister colo- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



743 



nies, July 18, 1778, it appears that the donations from 
South Carolina exceeded, both in money and supplies, 
any other colony, not excepting Massachusetts itself, — 
Massachusetts Bay contributing in money £2213 8s. Q^d. 
and South Carolina, cash X1403 12s. 3|t7., and proceeds 
of sale of rice in New York realizing X1304 19s. 0|c?,, 
in money X2708 ll.s. 4l(;?., and 331 casks of rice. The 
general committee in Charlestown reported on the 26th of 
April, 1775, the amount contributed as .£3300 remitted 
in cash, and 80 barrels of rice.^ 

^ Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 226. 

The author is indebted to Mr. Theodore Dehon Trapier for a copy of 
one of the subscription lists made at this time. It is of sufficient interest 
to be appended in full. It is as follows : — 

The Port of Boston having been Blocked up since the first of June 
last by a fleet of British men of war, which Hostile Invasion has wholly 
stoped the great and Extensive Trade that for more than a century past 
has been carried on from thence, to the great damage and distress of the 
Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, particularly of those whose daily 
support depended on the Business occasioned by the numerous shipping 
employed in their commerce. We the subscribers taking into our con- 
sideration the Melancholy situation and distress of the said Inhabitants, 
and being willing to contribute to the relief of our Bretheren whose only 
crime is their endeavour to frustrate the arbitrary and oppressive meas- 
ures of the British ministry and parliament manifestly tending to deprive 
the Americans of their liberty, have paid into the Iiands of the 

respective sums affixed to our names to be remitted to Boston in the 
spediest and most Effectual manner for answering the Salutary purposes 
hereby intended. 



Paul Trapier 


£50. 


paid 


John Allston 


£50. 




Jno Withers 


£30. 




Pet. Lessesne 


£5. 


pd 


Benj Huger 


£50. 




Josias Allston 


£10. 


paid 


P Trapier Jr. 


£50. 




Fran^ Allston 


£10. 


paid. 


George Pawley. 


£10. 


paid 


Tomas Hasell 


£20. 


— 


Benj Young 


£25. 


pd. 


Thomas Godfrey 


£80. 


paid, 


W'n Alston Jnl 


£80. 


paid 


Tho! Butler 


£20. 


paid 


W"' Pawley 


£20. 


pd. 


Benj" Scriven 


£20. 




Tho' Hennery 


£20. 


— 


Benj Trapier 


£35. 


paid 


Joseph AUston 


£50. 




Nath! Dwight 


£10. 


pd 



744 



HISTORY OB^ SOUTH CAROLINA 



Samuel Clyf 
Alex^ M. Foster 
Hugh Horry 
Alex Buchanan 
Petr Simons 
Thomas Wright 
WiB Cuttino 



£20. paid 
£13. pd. 
£20. pd 
£20. 
£20. pd 
£10. paid 
£7. 7. paid 



S. Wragg. Thirty pounds 

Rec4 the 6tJi July 1774, by 
hundred & thirty two Poun 
for the People of Boston. 



Robert Harlot £25. paid 

Henry Futhy £20. 

Jams Gordon £20. 

Anthony Bouneau. Twenty pounds, paid 

ArthF White, Sr. Thirteen pounds, paid. 

John Pyatt £13. pd. 

A nth" Mitchell £16. paid 

Samuel Smith. Twenty pounds. 

the Hands of Paul Trapier, Junr, Esq. Seven 
ds 5/. On acct. of the above subscription 

Christ. Gadsden, 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

1774-75 

At the request of the Commons' House, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull had allowed them to adjourn from the 26th of 
March, 1774, to the 3d of May ; but when that day arrived 
he had not permitted them to meet. He had prorogued 
them from time to time, and last to the 2d of August. 
The Commons were now as anxious to meet as they had 
before been to adjourn, for they had a scheme to carry 
out which required a legal House. They wished to pro- 
vide for the expenses of the deputies to the General Con- 
gress at Philadelphia out of the public treasury and to 
give the sanction of the Commons' House to their appoint- 
ment. It was expected that another prorogation would 
take place, and it was with great surprise and joy that the 
day came without a proclamation to that effect. In pur- 
suance of a secret understanding the members were all on 
hand and met at eight o'clock in the morning instead of 
waiting till ten or eleven as usual. Tlie House at once 
organized and appointed Messrs. Heyward and Cattell to 
wait on the Lieutenant Governor and inform his Honor 
that the House had met. On their return Mr. Heyward 
reported that Mr. Cattell and himself had waited on the 
Lieutenant Governor with the message they had in charge, 
and that his Honor was pleased to say he would be in the 
Council Chamber immediately when he would send a mes- 
sage to the House. 

The members of the House now availed themselves of 

745 



746 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the opportunity they had hoped for rather than expected, 
and all matters liavmg been prejjared Colonel Powell, 
chairman of the late general meeting, requested attention 
to a subject of importance with which he was charged. 
He then gave a short account of the proceeding of the 
general meeting on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of July, and of 
the appointment of the deputies on the part of this colony 
to meet the deputies of the other colonies of North America 
in General Congress in September at Philadelphia ; and 
thereupon moved that this House do recognize, ratify, 
and confirm the appointment of the deputies for the pur- 
poses mentioned, and that the House provide a sum, not 
exceeding X1500 sterling, to defray the expenses which 
the deputies would be at on the said service. These reso- 
lutions were unanimously adopted, and it was resolved that 
the House would make provision to pay with interest any 
person who would advance that sum to the deputies. The 
House then sent another message about Indian affairs and 
other matters of ordinary legislation to the Lieutenant 
Governor ; and had scarcely done so before a message was 
received from his Honor requiring their attendance in the 
Council Chamber. But the Lieutenant Governor was too 
late. The Commons had been too quick for him. 

It was indeed charged by some that Governor Bull had 
connived at the conduct of the Representatives ; but as 
Mr. Drayton says, William Bull was above any such arti- 
fice. He had been misled by Mr. Wragg, in whom he had 
great confidence and who from over-caution had advised 
him tJiat personal prorogation was preferable to one by 
proclamation as being at once more regular and more con- 
stitutional ; and without anticipating any such action on 
the part of the House he had expected to have had full 
time to have prorogued tliem in person before they could 
transact any business. This he was the more anxious to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 747 

do as Lord William Campbell, the newly appointed Gov- 
ernor, was expected shortly to arrive, and Governor Bull 
was endeavoring to keep affairs as quiet as possible that 
his Lordship might enter upon a new administration with 
every advantage, untrammelled by a quarrel with the Rep- 
resentatives which he knew would certainly have arisen 
had they been permitted to sit and discuss the late pro- 
ceedings of Parliament. An old matter of form contributed 
to the success of the Commons and the discomfiture of his 
Honor. The Governor and Council, it will be remembered, 
constituted the Court of Chancery, and it had become a 
part of the official ceremony that all communications from 
the Governor to the Commons' House should be made by 
the Master in Chancery, and all communications from the 
Commons to the Governor or Council by two of its mem- 
bers. When therefore the Lieutenant Governor, who was 
still in bed, heard of the Commons assembling at this un- 
expected hour, he sent at once for the Master in Chancery, 
but before his Honor could put on his clothes and have the 
attendance of the Master to carry his message, and secure 
the presence of two of his Council to represent the Upper 
House, the presence of Avhich was also proper in receiving 
the Commons, the Commons had carried out their purpose. 
When all the necessary formalities had been complied with 
the Lieutenant Governor prorogued the Assembly to the 
6th of September.! 

But after all what had been accomplished by the Com- 
mons? This House was the same which had been quarrel- 
ling: over the remittance to Wilkes, and the Additional 
Listruction, and the arrest of Powell the printer, and they 
brought no new strength to the moving party. There 
was no one in it from beyond the parishes. Patrick 
Calhoun was not now a member from Prince William's, 

1 Memoirs of the Eevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 124-140. 



748 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and the upper country, tlie cooperation of which was so 
essential to any action in tlie name of the province, was 
without representation, though this section now contained 
a far larger white population than the lower. 

Upon the death of Assistant Judge Murray, his Majesty's 
Council found difficulty in securing the services of a 
gentleman of proper mark and character to take his place 
in consequence of the inadequacy of the inducement, and 
the probability that if one accepted the position he would 
be superseded by some stranger from England. In this 
dilemma William Henry Drayton volunteered to serve 
until some one should be appointed by the King. Pos- 
sibly with the hope of giving employment to his restless 
energies, and committing him anew to the government 
to which he had recently indicated some disaffection, his 
offer was unanimously accepted by the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor and Council. But if such were their motives, they 
soon found themselves grievously mistaken ; for soon 
after the Congress met in Philadelpliia, INIr. Drayton 
again took up his pen, this time against the King. Though 
a member of the Council, and sitting as a judge under his 
Majesty's commission, he now wrote and published a 
.political tract setting forth the American grievances, and 
presenting a bill of American rights.^ This publication 
was signed as of old "_Frgemaw," and is a striking illus- 
tration of what different views of freedom and liberty 
may be written with the same pen, and be maintained 

1 Gibbes's Dncmnentary Hist. 1764-76, 1 1. Dr. Ramsay, in the second 
volume of his Hist, of So. Ca., 455, in the life which he has written of 
William Henry Drayton, says : " In the year 1774 he wrote a pamphlet 
under the signature of 'Freeman,' which was addressed to the American 
Congress. In this he stated the grievances of America and drew up a 
Bill of American Bights. This was well received. It substantially 
chalked out the line of conduct adopted by Congress then in ses- 
sion." 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 749 

under the same name. True, Mr. Drayton endeavored to 
forestall reflections upon his fickleness and unsteadiness, 
which would naturally be expressed, as he had written 
so warmly against popular measures, and was now as 
zealously writing against those of the administration. It 
was against the acts of Parliament, subsequent to the 
Stamp act, he persuaded himself that he had gone into 
opposition. These had all run counter to his ideas of 
the constitutional power of Parliament. The question 
now is not, he contended, whether Great Britain had a 
right to tax America against her consent, but whether 
she had a constitutional right to exercise desj3otism over 
America. But affairs he thought might yet be well. 
Our ancestors were often obliged to claim their rights, 
he said, where they were in danger of losing them. Let 
us follow, he urged, so successful an example. On this 
subject let the Americans address the throne with all 
due respect to Majesty, and at the same time with atten- 
tion to their own dignity as freemen. Mr. Drayton 
then went on to set out a bill of rights which, it has been 
claimed, substantially marked out the line of conduct ulti- 
mately adopted by the Congress. But in doing this he 
could not maintain as he endeavored a consistency with his 
position in 1769. Before he got through this very able 
paper he entirely abandoned the position with which he 
set out, to wit, that the question was not whether Great 
Britain had a right to tax America against her consent. 
He finds that this is the very question, and most ably 
does he argue it. But how Christopher Gadsden must 
have chuckled at the complete conversion of that young 
gentleman, who was now so zealously advocating the 
cause which, five years before, he had charged him with 
demagoguery for siq^porting. If Christopher Gadsden 
was too generous, or too much of a patriot to resent 



750 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

assistance, thougli it came from one who had been so 
offensive to him, there were others whom Mr. Drayton 
now offended, to whom there was no such compensation, 
and who were actuated by no such high sentiments. 

Mr. Drayton in this paper gave the history of the court 
in which he himself was then for the time serving, from 
which we have quoted in a previous chapter, a representa- 
tion which gave unpardonable offence to the other judges 
which constituted it. He showed, as we have seen, that 
while the bench had been filled with assistant judges, who 
were men of independence and property, serving the public 
without fee or reward, they had avoided issuing writs of 
assistance to the customs — a measure so abhorrent to the 
public. But that since, upon the establishment of the 
Circuit Court in 1769, salaries were given to the assistant 
judges, men from England, destitute of support in their 
own country, were appointed in the place of the colonial 
gentlemen who had been serving upon the bench, the court 
had become one subservient to the interest and demands 
of the Crown. This allusion was resented by the newly 
appointed assistant judges. The Chief Justice, Thomas 
Knox Gordon, and Charles Mathews Cosslett, one of 
the recently appointed assistant judges, presented a re- 
monstrance to the Lieutenant Governor complaining of 
Freeman's publication, charging it to Mr. Drayton, and 
submitting to his Honor whether Mr. Drayton, who then 
held the appointment of one of tlie King's assistant judges, 
was a fit person to be continued in office. Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull, from motives of delicacy from his relation to 
Mr. Drayton, would not act upon the matter, but laid the 
remonstrance before his Council, declaring that he would 
abide b}^ their advice. The discussion was carried on by 
charges and counter charges, in winch Mr. Drayton not 
only defended his own conduct, but brought into question 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERKMENT 751 

the legal competence of his accusers as evinced in their 
conduct and charges in open court. ^ 

Pending this discussion the November term began, and 
INIr. Drayton set out upon the circuit, taking the northern 
circuit to Georgetown, Cheraws, and Camden. On this 
circuit Mr. Drayton delivered that memorable series of 
charges to the grand juries in vindication of their rights, 
both as American and British subjects, which produced so 
marked an effect upon the people. At Cheraws, the grand 
jury in response presented as a grievance of the first mag- 
nitude the right claimed by the British Parliament to tax 
the colonies. " The right of being exempted from all 
laws but those enacted with the consent of representation 
of their own election we deem so essential to our freedom 
and so engrafted in our constitution," continued the grand 
jury, " that we are determined to defend it at the hazard 
of our lives and fortunes ; and we earnestly request that 
this presentment may be laid before our constitutional 
representatives, the Commons' House of Assembly of this 
colony, that it may be known how much we prize our free- 
dom, and are determined to preserve it." 

These charges of Mv. Drayton while on this circuit 
Avere beyond doubt of great influence upon the public 
mind at the time. How far they were consistent with 
Mr. Drayton's self-assumed position as an officer of the 
Crown is more questionable. But his career as a judge 
was short. He had scarcely left Charlestown when Mr. 
Gregory arrived from England to supersede him, and to 
supply the place of the late Judge Murray. A supersedeas 
was accordingly issued to Mr. Drayton's commission, and 
the necessity of a decision upon the Chief Justice's remon- 
strance thus avoided, no doubt to the great relief of the 
Lieutenant Governor, his uncle.^ 

^ Memuirs of the Btvolution (Drayton), vol. I, 150. 2 jjjici,^ 152, 153. 



752 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The clergy of the Church of England in South Caro- 
lina generally took the side of the revolutionists, a fact of 
great significance in itself. But one of these, the Rev. 
John BuUman, who had come from England in 1770, and 
was now Assistant Minister of St. Michael's, boldly stood 
up for the King and his government. His case is inter- 
esting as showing how really divided were the people at 
this time, notwithstanding the appearance of unanimity 
in the revolutionary measures. Mr. Bullman preached a 
sermon Sunday, the 14th of August, 1774, upon the duty 
of Peacemaking, in which, denouncing "■ the pragmatical 
spirit " then prevalent, he used this language : " In short, 
it is from this unhappy temper that every idle projector, 
who perhaps cannot govern his own household, or pay the 
debts of his own creating, presumes he is qualified to dic- 
tate how the state should be governed, and to point out 
means of paying the debts of a nation. Hence, too, it is 
that every silly clown and illiterate mechanic will take 
upon him to censure the conduct of his Prince or Gov- 
ernor, and contribute as much as in him lies to create and 
ferment those misunderstandings which, being brooded by 
discontent and diffused through great multitudes, come 
at last to end in schisms in the church, and sedition and 
rebellion in the state ; so great a matter doth a little fire 
kindle." Whether the pulpit was the place for such ob- 
servations was at least questionable ; but, in their spirit, 
they were no more objectionable than Mr. Drayton's on- 
slaught upon Mr. Gadsden and the non-importers, in 1769, 
when he sneered at Mr. Gadsden's advising with men 
who knew no rules but how to cut up a beast to the 
best advantage, or to cobble an old shoe in the neatest 
manner ; but now Mr. Drayton was consorting and ad- 
vising witli these very people whose fitness for political 
discussion he had so ridiculed five years before, and 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 753 

who Mr. Bullman still thought were unfit to govern the 
country. But matters had advanced since that time, 
and the butchers and shoemakers, under Gadsden, had 
made themselves heard in the meetings under the Liberty 
Tree. 

The vestry of St. Michael's represented to Mr. Bull- 
man that his sermon was construed as a censure upon the 
popular proceedings, and had caused great irritation ; but 
he refused to give any satisfaction, declaiming that if his 
principles and conduct were disapproved, he was ready to 
leave the parish. A meeting of the parishioners was 
thereupon called, and the vestry put the question to it 
whether or not they approved Mr. BuUman's conduct? 
It was objected that this was not a fair way of submitting 
the question really at issue, for, while few men might ap- 
prove of his course in this particular instance, all could 
give testimony to his general character as a moral man 
and edifying preacher. Sharp altercation ensued, and 
several moderate men in favor of Mr. Bullman quit the 
meeting. The question was then again put, with a cry, 
" Now we will see who are enemies to their country." 
Upon the vote being taken, it was found that thirty-three 
had voted in favor of Mr. Bullman and forty-two against 
him. The victory so obtained was received as a matter of 
triumph on the side of the people in favor of the Ameri- 
can cause ; and it was announced by a shout in the 
House of God. On the next day the vestry dismissed 
Mr. Bullman from his office. But this action created 
much uneasiness ; a respectable party espoused his 
caiise, and it was soon shown that Mr. Bullman was 
stronger than his vote at that boisterous meeting. Sev- 
enty-four of the parishioners addressed the vestry, urging 
his reinstatement. The vestrj' refused, and thereupon, 
curiously enough, the much-abused lay commission, which 

VOL. II — 3 c 



754 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

had caused so much controversy in 1704,^ was invoked 
for the second time in seventy years ; but, upon this occa- 
sion, in defence of the clergyman as against his vestry. 
A memorial, signed by eighty-seven of the parishioners in 
behalf of IVIr. Bullman against the vestry, was presented to 
the Lieutenant Governor, praying tliat the Board might 
be called together to examine into and decide upon the 
case. There was much excitement and violent agitation, 
each party espousing its side with great warmth. One 
declared that the assistant minister should be reinstated ; 
the other that if he were he would be dragged out 
of the pulpit. The affair grew so serious that it was 
feared blows would ensue. In the meantime the church 
commissioners assembled to the number of ten, all who 
were then in the province. The other two commission- 
ers, Thomas Lynch and Henry Middleton, were deputies 
at the General Congress. The Board attempted to supply 
the vacancies, and notifications were sent to the new mem- 
bers ; but Colonel Charles Pinckney, one of them, de- 
clined taking his seat because the new nominations were 
not, in his opinion, warranted by law, they having been 
made by only ten commissioners, and the law requiring 
twelve at least. The Lieutenant Governor, although not 
convinced of the force of this objection, yet submitted to 
Colonel Pinckney's opinion without calling in the counsel 
who had been employed to draw the memorial and support 
it, and dismissed the Board as having no power to proceed 
to business until the return of the two members then at 
the Congress. An attempt was tlien made to have the act 
amended so as to allow the Board to fill the vacancies ; 
but, upon one pretext or another, the matter was put off, 
until, finally giving rise to much debate, the bill amending 
the act was postponed for six months. LTpon this, Mr. 

'^History of So. Ca. tinder Prop. Gov. (McCracly), 441-447. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 755 

Bullman sailed for England with the substantial testimo- 
nial, raised by forty-one of his parishioners, of X986 17s., 
and a further testimonial of reverence and affection signed 
by eighty-one of them.i 

A very curious feature about this proceeding is the fact 
that the act of 1704, which authorized the church com- 
missioners to hear complaints and to adjudge differences 
between ministers and congregations, had been repealed 
as required by the Royal government and the Lords 
Proprietors. The act of 1706, under which the present 
church commissioners held their offices, gave no such 
powers ; these powers related only to the taking of grants 
of lands for churches and churchyards, and the building 
of churches. It was the awakening to this, probably, 
that caused the abandonment of the attempt to secure a 
quorum of the commissioners. ^ 

Some chests of tea had arrived shortly before this and 
had been deposited in the collector's store ; but the people 
were now more prepared for vigorous measures. Seven 
more chests having since arrived, on the 3d of November, 
1774, the merchants themselves and their agents, in the 
presence of the general committee, from the vessel then 
riding in the stream of Cooper River, threw all their con- 
tents into the water amidst the acclamations of the people 
who crowded the wharves on the Occasion. A similar 
occurrence took place at Georgetown. There was no 
disguise, no need of disguise here ; for the proprietors 
themselves joined in the destruction of the tea. 

On the 6th of November the delegates to the General 
Congress returned, and two days after the general com- 

^ Memoirs of the Bevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 142-144; Dalcho's 
Church Hist., 200, 201. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 245, 281 ; Ibid, 284, 285 ; Hist, of So. 
Ca. under Prop. Gov. (McCrady), 421, 442-444. 



756 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLIiJA 

mittee in a body waited on them at the State House where 
the delegates informed the committee of the Congressional 
proceedings ; and on the next day the delegates were 
honored by the general committee with an elegant enter- 
tainment. 



I 



CHAPTER XL 

1775 

The general committee which had been appointed by 
the meeting in July had practically assumed control of all 
public affairs. The committee was in fact the govern- 
ment of the colony. But, as we have seen, the meeting 
in July — a purely revolutionary body, which had been 
assembled at the call of private individuals, by circulars 
addressed to such persons as they selected, and in which 
there were few, if any, representatives of the upper part 
of the province — by its first action permitting votes to 
be given by each person present, and allowing whoever 
came to the meeting to vote, had lost whatever represen- 
tative character it might first have claimed. The action 
of the body was subject to the influences of the contend- 
ing local factions of the town, and was controlled not by 
the voices of its members, but by people collected from 
the streets and brought in by their leaders to vote. A 
body so constituted could not but be conscious of its own 
inherent weakness. It had no right to speak for the 
province. The general committee, therefore, were of 
opinion that the public union would be strengthened by 
having a better representation from every part of the 
province. But there was a practical difficulty in the 
way. There were no political divisions in the upper part 
of the province. The Circuit Court act of 1769 had pre- 
scribed circuits and precincts for judicial, but none for 
political, purposes, and these judicial divisions did not 
answer for political representation. We have seen that 

757 



758 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the Calhouns and Williamson and others had petitioned 
the General Assembly for the division of that section 
into parishes, in conformity with those of the low coun- 
try, but that in the quarrels with Lord Charles Greville 
Montagu, the Governor, this important measure had been 
overlooked, though Joseph Kershaw had reported from 
the committee to whom it had been referred, the urgent 
necessity for a compliance with the memorial in order to 
give the people of that part of the province the represen- 
tation to which they were entitled by their great num- 
bers. This wrong the general committee now undertook 
itself to redress, but it was a very delicate business in 
their hands. Owing their own appointment to a body 
controlled by the populace of Charlestown, what authority 
had they to prescribe the election districts in the interior? 
Who authorized them to say in what proportion the people 
in that part of the province should be represented? The 
committee, however, assumed the authority. They par- 
celled out the whole of the upper country into four large 
districts: (1) one between the Savannah and the Saluda 
rivers they called Ninety-six ;i (2) the next was the dis- 
trict between the Saluda and the Broad; (3) the next 
between the Broad and the Catawba; and (4) the last, all 
east of the Catawba or the Wateree. To each of these 
districts the committee allotted ten representatives. This 
is the account which Moultrie gives of the action of the 
committee : — 

" Colonel Geo. G. Powell in the chair of the committee. 
Colonel Charles Pinckney proposed to give thirty mem- 
bers to Charlestown, and then he said, 'Let the countr}' 
take as many as they pleased,' upon which the country 

1 This name was taken from that of the post so called, which afterward 
became the village of Cambridge, and was so called because ninety-six 
miles from Fort Prince George, the frontier fort. Mills's Statistics, 350. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 759 

gentlemen,^ talking over the matter, agreed that six mem- 
bers from each parish would be quite sufficient and as 
many as they could get conveniently to attend, except for 
the four large districts, viz. Ninety-six, between Broad 
and Saluda rivers, and Broad and Catawba rivers, and 
eastward of the Wateree River, should have ten membeis 
each. It was tlien resolved that Charlestown should 
have thirty members, and that each parish and district 
should send the proportion agreed upon to the Provincial 
Congress." 

This is the manner, Moultrie says, in which the repre- 
sentation of the country was established at the Revolution, 
without res^DCct to numbers or property. He was, he says, 
well acquainted with the circumstance, because he was 
present when it was agreed upon. It was thought politic 
and right, he observes, to give these large districts ten 
representatives, the better to unite them with the lower 
country, and as they contained a large extent of territory, 
and but few inhabitants, they should have a member for 
each part of their district, by which their constituents 
might be better informed about the nature of the dispute 
with Great Britain and America, which they could not 
know, being settled so far from the capital and from each 
other; by this mode the representation in the province 
was increased from forty-nine to one hundred and eighty- 
four; accordingly the general committee sent out writs 
for electing members, agreeably to the election law, to 
some influential gentlemen in every parish and district 
throughout the province for the representation elected to 
meet in Charlestown on the 11th of January, 1775.^ 

1 That is, the gentlemen from the parishes. They were none, as far 
as we know, from the up country. 

"^Memoirs of the Bevolution (Moultrie), vol. I,, 12, 13; Memnirs of 
the Bevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 154, 155. 



760 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

It is curious that the general committee, composed as it 
was of the leading men in the low country, seemed not to 
realize the great tide of population which had set in 
behind them, and were not apparently aware of the report 
made by Mr. Kershaw in 1769, showing that the region 
which they were thus dividing into four election dis- 
tricts, with ten representatives each, giving them but 
forty out of one hundred and eighty-four representatives, 
then actually contained three-fourths of the people of the 
province. In some justification, however, of this unequal 
division of representation in the Congress, it must be 
remembered that the great bulk of the wealth of the 
province was at this time, and long after, continued in the 
parishes in the low country. To give the new-comers in 
the up country equal representation would therefore put 
the taxing power in that section, while the property to 
be taxed lay in the other. 

Thus almost accidentally, and without any authority, 
nor with any intention of permanency, but as a mere 
temporary expedient, was implanted in the constitution 
of South Carolina a system of unequal representation, 
which was not until the constitution of 1895 wholly 
eradicated, and which has led to much unkind feeling 
and sectional jealousy. Its influence was most unfortu- 
nate, too, at this time, when it was so necessary to unite 
the whole people in one cause. Most unfortunate for the 
State was it that Mr. Kershaw's report recommending the 
division of the upper part of the province into parishes 
corresponding with the lower had not been immediately 
adopted and carried out. Their ecclesiastical character 
would have fallen, in the Revolution, with those on the 
coast, and the State, upon emerging after that struggle, 
would have had a system of small election districts at 
hand, with more equal representation. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 7G1 

Elections were held under the call of the general com- 
mittee, but whether the people generally took part in 
them, we have no information. The writs of election, it 
will be observed, were sent to no officials, but to certain 
"influential gentlemen in every parish and district," and 
these " influential gentlemen " took care, no doubt, to see 
that only those were returned who were favorable to the 
cause.' The Gazettes of the day, and Moultrie's Memoirs, 
furnish lists of those returned as elected.^ It had not 
been unusual in South Carolina for a parish to elect as 
its representative in the Commons a person not resident 
within its limits. There was no requirement of the 
election law restricting representatives to be residents 
in the election precinct from which elected; nor is the 
practice without substantial advantages to recommend it.^ 
Thus we have seen Isaac Mazyck was often returned as 
a member from several parishes at the same election; and 
so were such popular men as Christopher Gadsden and 
John Rutledge. The election, therefore, of low-country 
men for this Congress, as members for the upper-country 
districts, would not of itself have the same significance 
that such an occurrence would have to-day. But under 
all the circumstances of the time we cannot but look 
upon the appearance of such prominent low-country men 
as Edward Rutledge among those returned from Ninety- 
six, John Colcock and Rowland Rugely from the district 
between the Broad and Saluda, Henry Middleton from 
the district between the Broad and the Catawba, and 
William Henry Drayton from Saxe-Gotha, as somewhat 
the work of the "influential gentlemen" to whom the 
writs of election were sent. The other representatives 

1 See Appendix V. 

2 Professor Bryce's comments on the subject, The American Common- 
tcealth, vol. I, chapter XIX, 186. 



762 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

from these districts were almost exclusively the English 
Virginians who had recently come into the province. 
Thus the district between the Broad and the Catawba 
returned, besides Henry Middleton, John Chesnut, Ben- 
jamin Farrow, Thomas Taylor, Thomas Woodward, John 
Hopkins, Robert Goodwin, William Howell, and John 
Winn; that to the east of the Wateree, Thomas Sumter, 
Richard Richardson, Mathew Singleton, Robert Carter, 
Aron Locock, and William Wilson. There is a striking 
feature of these elections of great significance, and that is 
the conspicuous absence of the Scotch-Irish and German 
element. We recognize the names of none of the Scotch- 
Irish who filled that section of the province among those 
elected, except Patrick Calhoun and John Caldwell, who, 
if they attended, took no conspicuous part in the proceed- 
ings of the body. It is at least singular that we find, 
among the returned, none of the Brattons, McLures, Hills, 
Gastons, or Laceys, who so distinguished themselves when 
the war of the Revolution rolled back to the upper part of 
the State. There is not a single German elected from 
Saxe-Gotha or St. Mathew's or from the Dutch Fork. 
The inference is very strong that either the elections 
were so conducted as to allow no opportunity of the elec- 
tion of any of these people, or that they would take no 
part in the elections. 

The representatives thus chosen appeared with great 
punctuality at the Exchange in Charlestown on the 11th 
of January, 1775, and immediately organized by choosing 
Charles Pinckney to be their President, and Peter Timo- 
thy, one of their representatives, their Secretary. They 
then adjourned to the Commons' House of Assembly and 
resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress. 

The delegates to the Continental Congress had returned 
and were present. They were immediately questioned as 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 763 

to the proceedings of that body. They were particularly 
asked why it was that at a time when representatives 
from all parts of America met for the express purpose of 
considering and stating the American grievances, and for 
devising means of redressing them, they had limited their 
complaints to the year 1763, and had not traced back, as 
could easily have been done, the many aggressions which 
had been committed by Great Britain upon her infant 
colonies in the jealousies, monopolies, and prohibitions 
with which she was so prodigal toward them, for the 
purpose of depressing their population, restricting their 
trade, and crippling their attempts at even the most 
domestic and necessary manufactures ? ^ In other words, 
why had they not gone back to the navigation laws, 
the real source of all the discontent in the colonies ; 
and instead rested their case upon the Stamp act and 
the theory of taxation and representation, about which 
there was such a difference of opinion ? To this it was 
answered that the delegates from South Carolina had 
been willing to have stated the whole case, setting out 
all grievances, but that the delegates from Virginia 
would not "retrospect" back further than 1763. That 
although the reason for this course was not avowed, it 
was understood that it had been determined at home not 
to go back beyond that year, as thereby the greater odium 
would be thrown upon the reign of George III, which 
had been so fatal to the peace of America. 

Besides a statement of the grievances, without mention 
of the chief cause of offence, little had really been accom- 
plished by the Continental Congress, and of that little 
the chief measure was just \that which the meeting 
under the Exchange in July liad refused to adopt, and 
to which the merchants in Charlestown who had assisted 

* Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 167. 



764 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the Commons in maintaining their certificates as currency, 
and thus materially aiding them in their struggle with 
the Council, were most opposed. It was, indeed, a most 
impolitic measure. As has been well observed, it was 
but a poor medicine, but according to the knowledge of 
the times; heroic but mistaken surgery, like the blood- 
letting then in vogue. At the very time when all the 
vigor of the system seemed likely to be taxed to the utter- 
most, on the verge of war with Great Britain, the colo- 
nists were bidden by their wise men to impoverish them- 
selves as much as possible, and to cut off not only the 
supply of all the numerous articles of common necessity 
and daily use, but of munitions of war, which they were 
sorely to need.^ More than this, the measure had been 
already tried, and had failed; and it would have inevita- 
bly failed again had not events hurried on the war. 

But there was a special provision in the articles recom- 
mended by the Congress, which had been put in at the in- 
stance of John Rutledge, which proved to be a two-edged 
sword; and that was the exception in regard to rice in 
the prohibition as to exports. Without this exception the 
delegates from South Carolina would not, and, under 
the circumstances, should not, have agreed to recom- 
mend the adoption of the agreement; but, on the other 
hand, with it would be sown the seeds of discord and 
sectional jealousy in the province beyond the possibility 
of remedy. This exception, reluctantly granted bj' the 
other provinces, as soon as known here, created an alarm- 
ing disunion throughout the whole colony. Not only the 
whole interior, but the indigo planters on the coast as 
well, considered their interests sacrificed to the emolu- 
ments of the rice planters. A motion was therefore made 

1 See this scheme satirized in verse, " A Familiar Epistle from Amer- 
ica," Moore's Am. Bev. Diary, vol. II, 22. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 765 

and seconded that the delegates to be elected should be 
instructed to use their utmost endeavors at the ensuing 
Congress to cause these words to be expunged. This 
motion produced an excited and angry discussion. 

Mr. Gadsden thought it his duty to declare that he had 
not any hand in causing those words to be jDut in the 
articles of association. So ill had the proposition been 
received, he said, that it had occasioned a cessation of 
business for several days, in order to give our deputies 
time to recollect themselves. That when the members 
were signing the instrument, all the deputies from South 
Carolina but himself withdrew. That he would have 
been glad of the honor of signing his name alone, and 
for doing so would have trusted to the generosity of his 
constituents ; that he had actually offered to do so, and 
that Carolina was on the point of being excluded from 
the association, when our deputies, being again sum- 
moned by the Secretary, returned into the Congress, 
yielding up the article of indigo, which they had also 
asked to be exempted, and that Congress, for the sake 
of preserving the union of America, allowed the article 
of rice to be excepted. That this, however, was illy 
received by the other colonies, and therefore it was his 
opinion that for the common good, as well as our own 
honor, we ought to remove this as soon as possible by 
having the words '"''except rice to Europe^'' stricken out of 
the fourth article of the association. 

John Rutledge then arose and undertook his own 
defence and that of his three associates. He said that 
at an early period he and the other delegates from this 
colony had warmly pressed an immediate non-importation 
and total non-exportation. That as the purpose of a non- 
exportation to Great Britain and Ireland was to withhold 
from the people of tliose countries the advantages they 



7G6 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

might acquire from a receipt of American commodities, 
the end woukl be more surely effected by retaining those 
commodities altogether in America. The northern col- 
onies, however, would not agree to this, but insisted 
upon remitting to England as usual to pay their debts 
by the circuitous mode of their flour and fish trade to 
the rest of Europe. The commodities they sent to the 
mother country were but trifling. Their real trade — 
which was with the rest of Europe — would be but little 
affected by the articles of the association. For instance, 
Philadelphia carried on a trade of export to the amount 
of £700,000 sterling, whereas scarce £50,000 value of 
it went to the mother country. That it was evident 
those colonies were less intent to annoy the mother coun- 
try in the article of trade than to preserve their own; 
and he thought it was but justice to his constituents 
to preserve to them their trade as entire as possible. 
That as the northern trade would be but little affected 
by the association, he saw no reason why ours should be 
almost ruined; for nearly all our indigo and two-thirds 
of our rice went to the ports of the mother country. 
That if we must bear burdens in the cause of America, 
they ought to be as equally laid as possible. Upon the 
whole, he said, the affair seemed rather like a commercial 
scheme among the flour colonies to find a better vent for 
their flour through the British Channel, by preventing, 
if possible, any rice from being sent to those markets, 
and that, for his part, he could never consent to our 
becoming dupes to the people of the North, or in the 
least to yield to their unreasonable expectations ; that 
since by the association the rice planters preserved their 
property, it had been the scheme of the delegates in 
Congress that they should make compensation to the 
indigo planters, who could not send their crops to the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 767 

mother country; such a plan, he thought, was just and 
practicable. 1 

The debate became general. Thomas Lynch and 
Thomas Lynch, Jr., William Henry Drayton, and Ed- 
ward Rutledge sujjported John Rutledge. On the other 
hand, Christopher Gadsden, Rawlins Lowndes, and the 
Rev. Mr. Tennent contended that the compensation 
scheme was impracticable. These latter gentlemen main- 
tained that if it were to operate in favor of the indigo 
planter, it should afford, in justice, also alike relief to 
the hemp grower, the lumber cutter, the corn planter, the 
producers of pork and butter, etc. ; for why should this 
benefit be confined to the indigo maker in exclusion of 
other classes of citizens, whose commodities were tlieir 
means of support, and would be equally unsalable by the 
association? That as Ave were all one people, we should 
all suffer alike, and then all would struggle through 
difliculties which might arise. 

In this discussion the whole day was spent; at sunset 
a committee was appointed to form a plan of compensa- 
tion. The committee reported the next morning, but its 
plan was intricate and unsatisfactory, was rejected, and 
the debate renewed. The discussion was carried on with- 
out any cessation until dark. Great excitement pre- 
vailed. The Congress was in uproar and confusion. At 
length, all parties wearied, the question was put by 
candle-light, and Drayton says at the desire of one of the 
indigo party was put in a manner that resulted adversely 
to that interest. Instead of voting as usual by acclama- 
tion, to avoid mistakes in counting each man's name was 
called, and he declared himself yea or nay^ which was 
recorded. By this mode some were overawed, either by 
their circumstances or connections, and to the surprise 

1 Memoirs of the Am. livvolntion (Drayton), vol. I, 168-171. 



768 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the nays — tliat is, of those opposed to expunging the 
exception in favor of rice — they carried the point by 
twelve votes — eighty-seven to seventy-five. So the rice 
planters triumphed. 

The next day being Sunday, the Congress was opened 
with the celebration of divine service by the Rev. Mr. 
Paul Turquand, who was a member of the body, after 
which business was resumed and another committee ap- 
pointed to suggest some mode of compensation. Upon 
their report rice was assumed as the basis of valuation at 
55s. currency the hundred weight, and as that rose or fell 
in price, so the other commodities were to rise and fall 
likewise; a table of values of other articles was prescribed. 
Committees were to be appointed to effect the exchange 
of the commodities, as convenience should require, either 
in kind or in money. By this plan rice planters were to 
exchange rice or money arising from it for one-third of 
the crops of indigo, hemp, corn, flour, lumber, pork, and 
butter. Each rice planter was to deliver one-third of his 
crop to the committee of his parish, and to receive for 
it an equal value of other commodities in turn. These 
committees would have had a difficult business on their 
hands had the scheme gone into practical operation, for 
the fact had been overlooked that a third of the rice crop 
was scarcely equal to a third of the indigo, and that 
consequent!}^ the various other products would not have 
any fund for exchange compensation. The rice planters 
agreed to the arrauCTcment, believinsr that it would never 
go into effect, as either there would be no occasion for it, 
or that the hostile situation of affairs would put an end 
to the scheme. In this their anticipations were soon 
fuliilled.i 

John Rutledge was clearly right when he objected to 

^ 3Iemoirs of the Bevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 168-174. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 769 

South Carolina going into the non-intercourse association 
unless it should be absolute. The colony had followed 
others into such a scheme in 1769, and claimed that it 
had been deserted by them and left alone in its enforce- 
ment. True, this was denied, and it was, on the con- 
trary, charged that this colony had been among the 
violators; but whichever colony had first broken the 
association, its trial had demonstrated that no such 
agreement could be relied upon. But more than this, 
as Rutledge showed, the scheme would work to the ma- 
terial interests of the northern colonies, and directly 
against the interest of South Carolina. It was prepos- 
terous to ask South Carolina, the great rice colony, to 
go into an association by which the northern colonies 
were to be actually benefited and her chief business de- 
stroyed. As we have seen, the exports of South Carolina 
to England amounted possibly to near a .£1,000,000 ster- 
ling; whereas, as John Rutledge showed, out of ,£700,000 
exports from Philadelphia, not X50,000 went to England. 
The explanation of this difference is given by Edward 
Rutledge in a letter to Ralph Izard, then in Europe. 
Rice was one of the enumerated articles under the Navi- 
gation acts of England, and could not therefore be shipped 
except to England and Scotland, and to ports south of 
Cape Finisterre, while the produce of northern colonies, 
wlieat and flour not being enumerated articles, could be 
shipped anywhere. Non-importation meant, therefore, 
ruin to South Carolina. 

It was comparatively of little injury to the northern 
colonies. The Association was equally objectionable to 
South Carolina whether rice was excepted or was not 
excepted. If rice was not excepted, a great blow would 
be dealt to the chief industry and business of the colony. 
If rice was excepted, a new and just ground of offence 

VOL. II — 3d 



770 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was given to the upper country. Rice, it would be said, 
would be protected at the expense of the products and 
business of that section. 

This matter having been settled, the Congress then pro- 
ceeded to establish a system of government for the colony. 
It resolved to continue its existence until there should be 
a new general meeting of the people, and in the meantime 
it was to be convened, when necessary, by a vote of the 
Charlestown members, who for convenience of meeting 
were constituted a committee for that purpose, to be 
known as the General Committee. This committee had 
also the cognizance of the collection of debts. A sub- 
committee of the Charlestown members was constituted 
as a committee of inspection, to take charge of the 
arrival of vessels and their cargoes, and of the conduct 
of the people generally. The sub-committee was to re- 
port to the General Committee, whose directions they 
were to obey. The representatives of the parishes and 
districts respectively composed their local committees, 
and they were also assisted by committees of inspection. 
By these arrangements an independent authority was vir- 
tually constituted, while the Royal government retained 
little else than public offices without power, and a show 
of government without the means of supporting it. 

The Congress next proceeded to the election of dele- 
gates to the ensuing Continental Congress at Philadel- 
phia, and the five former delegates were rechosen. They 
were elected without any opposition, for as their proceed- 
ings in the former Congress had been confirmed on the 
whole, it was deemed best that confidence should be 
evinced by their reelection. The power and credentials 
of these delegates were thus prescribed : " To represent 
this colony on the 10th of May 7iext, or sooner if necessary, 
at the American Congress, to he held at Philadelphia or 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 771 

elseivhere, ivith full power to concert, agree upon, direct, and 
order such further measures as in the opinion of the said 
deputies and the delegates of the other American colonies to 
be assembled shall appear to be necessary for the recovery 
and establishment of American rights and liberties, and for 
restoring harmony between Great Britaiyi and her colonies.^^ ^ 
On the 17th of January the Provincial Congress waited 
on the Lieutenant Governor at his residence in Broad 
Street, and presented him with an address styling them- 
selves "his Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects, the rep- 
resentation of all the good people in the colony now met 
in Provincial Congress," and stating that they thought 
themselves obliged to address his Honor for redress of a 
grievance which threatened destruction to the constitu- 
tion and ruin to the inhabitants of the country; namely, 
the loner and still continued disuse of the General Assem- 
bly, contrary not only to every principle of free govern- 
ment, but directly against a law of this province. It 
was not necessary, they said, to enumerate all the un- 
happy consequences which must follow a denial of the 
right of the people to appear frequently by their repre- 
sentatives in General Assembly. Taxes continuing to be 
raised and paid and laws to be executed against the sense 
of the people were but a part of their grievances. Mor- 
tifying as these considerations were, the causes were more 
so, being, according to their best information, no other 
than a refusal of the House of Assembly to obey minis- 
terial mandates contrary to their consciences and subver- 
sive of the rights of the constituents; his Majesty's 
Council composed chiefly of placemen paying an im- 
plicit and servile obedience to unconstitutional instruc- 
tions. They forbore to trouble his Honor for reasons in 
support of the request which they now as of right made 

1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 176. 



772 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

in behalf of all the good subjects of his Majesty in the 
colon}^ that the holding and sitting of the General As- 
sembly might be no longer delayed, but that it might be 
permitted to sit for the dispatch of public business as 
formerly. They prayed his Honor to be assured that they 
did not intend to question his Majesty's prerogative of 
calling, proroguing, and dissolving the General Assem- 
bly, but only to request that this power be exercised for 
the good of the people. 

The Lieutenant Governor, if he would discuss the mat- 
ter at all with this revolutionary body, might well have 
reminded these gentlemen, many of whom were members 
of the General Assembly, that the "Additional Instruc- 
tion " of which they complained as a ministerial mandate 
contrary to their consciences, and subversive of the rights 
of their constituents, had been provoked, if not justified, 
by the conduct of the Commons in diverting the public 
money to the payment of Wilkes's debts and private ex- 
penses, and that from their own unauthorized and im- 
proper conduct in that matter had arisen that whole trouble. 
But his Honor contented himself with a most dignified 
and courteous reply, saving alike the feelings of his own 
personal friends, of whom they were so many in the Con- 
gress, and the loyalty and propriety of his own position. 
He knew, he said, no legal representatives of the good 
people of this province but the Commons' House of 
Assembly, chosen according to the Election act and met 
in General Assembly. As gentlemen of respectable char- 
acter and property, however, he informed those addressing 
liim that the General Assembly stood prorogued to the 
24th instant. He had always endeavored to make the 
law of the land his rule of government in the administra- 
tion of public affairs, and he should not omit observing 
it in meeting the General Assembly according to the 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 773 

prorogation, with whom he should, under the guidance 
of his duty to the King, and zeal for the service of the 
province, do everything in his power that could contrib- 
ute to the public welfare. 

When the Provincial Congress returned to their cham- 
ber, they adopted resolutions that all the inhabitants of 
the colony should be attentive in learning the use of 
arms, and that their officers train and exercise them at 
least once a fortnight. That Friday, the 17th of Febru- 
ary next, should be set apart as a day of fasting, humilia- 
tion, and prayer before Almighty God, devoutly to petition 
him to inspire the King with true wisdom to defend the 
people of North America in their just title to freedom, 
and to avert from them the impending calamities of civil 
war. 

The Congress returned thanks to their President and 
Secretary, and then adjourned to the 20th of June unless 
it should be reconvened earlier by the Charlestown 
General Committee.^ 

'^Memoirs of the Bevohition (Drayton), vol. I, 176-180. 



CHAPTER XLI 

1775 

The Charlestown General Committee met on the 18th 
of January, 1775, and organized themselves under the 
regulations of the Provincial Congress • but they soon 
learned that they were not the masters of affairs, even in 
the town. The merchants and conservatives had suc- 
ceeded in defeating the proposal to try another non-impor- 
tation and exportation scheme at the invitation of Boston, 
and they had also succeeded, as they thought, in restrict- 
ing the powers of the delegates to the Continental Con- 
gress to agreeing only to such legal measures as would be 
most likely to obtain a repeal of the objectionable acts of 
Parliament. Following the spirit of their instructions, 
our delegates at Philadelphia had, under the lead of John 
Rutledge, refused to recommend the adoption of an asso- 
ciation for non-intercourse with England as proposed, but 
by Gadsden's efforts they had consented upon the condition 
of the exception of rice from the prohibited exports. We 
have seen what an apple of discord this condition proved 
to be at home. But the Charlestown committee under- 
took in good faith to carry out the purposes of the asso- 
ciation as they had been accepted by the Provincial 
Congress. A vessel arriving about this time from Bris- 
tol, in England, with 3844 bushels of salt, 35 chaldrons 
of coals, and 40,500 tiles, these articles of prime neces- 
sity were thrown into the river by a people on the verge 
of war and without the means of replacing them. 

But another case soon arose which convulsed the town 

774 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 775 

A family which had been residing in England, and were 
returning home to share the fate of their people in these 
troublous times, had brought with them in the vessel the 
household furniture and horses which had been used by 
them in England. Under the circumstances the com- 
mittee, after considerable discussion, decided that these 
horses did not come within the meaning of the article 
of the association as relating to goods or niei-chandise^ 
and authorized their landing. The permission of the 
committee created great excitement among the people. 
The cry was raised, " The Associatio7i ivas broken.''^ The 
horses at least should not be landed. Hundreds of the 
inhabitants of the town assembled; and though many 
active and influential members of the committee endeav- 
ored to pacify them, they would not desist in their oppo- 
sition, but demanded that the General Committee should 
reconsider their vote. The General Committee was re- 
convened on the 17th of March. The room of meeting 
was crowded. Edward Rutledge was bold enough to 
censure the people for tlius questioning the vote which 
had been given, but he would not be listened to. The 
authority of the committee was despised; some of its 
members left in anger, others became vociferous in rage; 
all was in confusion. Sufficient order was at length 
secured to obtain a postponement of action until a more 
full attendance of the committee could be procured. The 
presence of all members was desired, and great exertions 
Avere made for that purpose by both parties. 

When the day of the meeting arrived, the town was in 
universal commotion, and great was the press of the 
people who attended. Application had been privately 
made to the military companies to cover the landing of 
the horses, and some of tlie individual members had 
agreed to do so; but the majority of them refused, and 



776 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the people declared that if the horses were landed they 
would put them to death. Amidst this confusion the 
debate began, upon Mr. Gadsden's motion to reverse the 
former determination as to landing the horses. He urged 
that the vote had been carried in a thin committee; that 
it was contrary to the association ; that it would alarm the 
northern colonies; and that the people were highly dissat- 
isfied with it. And this last, he contended, was of itself 
a cogent reason to reverse the determination. Then fol- 
lowed the Rev. Mr. Tennent and Mr. Rugely on the 
same side. Rawlins Lowndes, Edward Rutledge, Thomas 
Bee, and Thomas Lynch, on the other hand, urged that 
the action of the General Committee ought not to be 
reversed, and that, if it was, the committee would fall 
into contempt. That the committee ought not to be 
influenced by outside pressure. That temporizing did 
not become honest men and statesmen, who ought to 
declare their opinions according to their consciences. 
That if they adhered to the letter of the association, no 
arms or ammunition could be received from England; 
that it was never the idea of Congress to exclude such 
articles. Then followed William Henry Drayton, who, 
though still a member of the Governor's Council, took 
part in the meeting, and supported Gadsden. In a style 
similar to that in which he had formerly assailed Mr. 
Gadsden, now in a long speech, in which Cato of Utica, 
and Cicero's Letters to Atticus, and the Long Parlia- 
ment were all called in as witnesses for the people, he 
urged that the Roman Senate were a wise body, and that 
they had yielded to the people; but nobody supposed 
their concessions brought them into contempt, and there- 
fore that the General Committee should follow their 
example. Was Mr. Drayton now actually for 3'ielding 
to the clamor of "the carpenters, cobblers, and butchers "? 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 777 

It is strange that a man of so much ability as Mr. 
Drayton undoubtedly was — if, in his position as a mem- 
ber of the King's Council, he had any right to take part 
in this discussion — should have so blinded himself to 
the point that the General Committee, though for con- 
venience constituted of the members of the Provincial 
Congress resident in Charlestown, were but the represen- 
tatives of a body which at least claimed themselves to 
represent the people of the whole province, and not only 
those of the town. The Provincial Congress had not 
delegated the authority they possessed to the townspeople 
to be exercised by them in mass meetings or mobs, but to 
certain delegates who, because they lived in and near the 
town, could be easily convened. The committee had no 
right, therefore, to listen to or obey the dictates of a mob 
of the town, but were bound, as Lowndes and Edward 
Rutledge and Lynch and Bee urged, to act on their own 
responsibility as a committee representing all the people 
of the whole province. All this was no doubt well pre- 
sented by John Rutledge, who now rose to meet the argu- 
ments which had been urged by Gadsden and Drayton; 
but we have no report of his speech, only that in it he 
added much to his reputation as a speaker. But argu- 
ment and eloquence were of little avail in the presence 
of the threatening multitude. By a majority of one the 
committee yielded to the clamor of the pressing throng, 
and by a vote of thirty-five to thirty-four rescinded their 
permission to the returning family to land their horses.^ 

The General Assembly, as we have seen, had been pro- 
rogued by the Lieutenant Governor to the 6th day of Sep- 
tember, 1774. From that day it was prorogued from time 
to time to the 24th of Januarj^, 1775, that is, a week after 
the adjournment of the Provincial Congress, wdien the 
1 Memoirs of the Hevolution (Draytou), vol. I, 180-187. 



778 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Lieutenant Governor received the Commons in the Coun- 
cil Chamber. In his speech he informed them that he had 
nothing in command from the King to lay before them, 
but recommended the reviving and continuing of certain 
acts which were about to expire. He reminded them that 
the public faith was pledged to maintain several estab- 
lishments which were supported out of the produce of the 
general duty law. He should order the public Treasurers 
to lay their accounts before them and trusted that they 
would make provision for meeting the public debts. 

The Commons — the most of wliom were members of 
the Provincial Congress — by their address in reply ex- 
pressed their surprise and concern at being informed that 
his Honor had nothing in command from the King to lay 
before them, as their agent had long ago informed their 
Speaker that the " Additional Instruction " which they 
had so often complained of had been withheld in the 
instructions made out to the newly appointed Governor. 
That this cruel neglect, as well of his Honor as of this 
colony, they could not but consider as an aggravation of 
the many oppressive acts of the present ministry, leaving 
little hope that their deliberations would be of much 
advantage to the colony, as all the former obstructions 
to business seemed to remain in full force. They assured 
his Honor, however, that they would take into consid- 
eration immediately what laws ought to be revived and 
continued, and also what provision was necessary for dis- 
charging the debts and supporting the public credit. 

Mr. Lynch, one of the delegates to the Continental 
Congress, then laid before the Commons a copy of the 
journal of the proceedings of that body, and Christopher 
Gadsden, John Rutledge, and himself being in their 
places, Rawlins Lowndes, the Speaker, by order of the 
House, in its behalf, returned the thanks of that body to 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 779 

the deputies who had attended the Congress from this 
colony. The House then gave its sanction to the reap- 
pointment of these gentlemen to the General Congress at 
Philadelphia. The powers now given by the House of 
Commons were certainly less restricted than those given by 
the Provincial Congress ; but this was nothing looking to 
independence. Their commission ran: " With full power 
and authority to concert and agree to, and effectually to 
'prosecute such measures as in the opinioti of the said depu- 
ties and of the deputies so to be assembled shall be most 
likely to obtain a redress of the American grievances." The 
House further resolved to provide £1500 sterling to pay 
the expenses of these deputies in attending the Congress. ^ 
It will be recollected that the occasion of the breach of 
William Henry Drayton with the administration was the 
arrest of Powell the printer for publishing a protest Mr. 
Drayton had entered on the journals of the Council upon 
their refusal to proceed with a bill to prevent counter- 
feiting the paper money of the other colonies, the Coun- 
cil, it will be remembered, refusing to pass any bill until 
the Commons would submit to the "Additional Instruc- 
tion." This Additional Instruction, it had been learned, 
liad been omitted from the instructions of the new Gov- 
ernor, now soon expected to arrive, and it was hoped that 
the Lieutenant Governor would have been authorized to 
make such an announcement in his opening speech; but 
he had not. In order to test the matter, the House there- 
fore again passed ''An act to prevent counterfeiting the 
paper money of the other colonies,'''' and sent it to the 
Council. This put the Council in a serious dilemma. 
The general duty was about to expire, and the Council 
well knew that the Commons would not insert in the bill 
renewing it the clause required by the "Additional In- 
1 Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 204-209. 



780 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

struction." If, on the other hand, they passed this bill, 
— though upon an indifferent subject, — they would aban- 
don the position they had assumed of refusing to pass any 
measure until the Commons submitted to the " Additional 
Instruction." The situation was a delicate one, and when 
the day came for reading the bill, the members of Council 
were still in doubt as to their coarse. They adopted the 
expedient, therefore, of postponing its reading under the 
pretence of the absence of a member. This member was 
John Stuart, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, whose 
romantic escape from the Indians we have told in a pre- 
vious chapter; but it had been the custom of the Council 
hitherto to take no notice of the absence of any member 
who was not a Crown officer. Then when the da}^ to 
which the bill had been postponed arrived, two Crown 
officers absented themselves, on the ground of indisposi- 
tion, which was believed to be feigned. Upon this Will- 
iam Henry Drayton, who still kept his seat in the Council, 
entered again his protest that it was unreasonable to post- 
pone the bill for the indisposition and absence of two 
members, who, although Crown officers, were not ex- 
pressly required to be present,' and as there was a quorum 
sufficient for transacting business without them, — a num- 
ber that had often transacted business of a similar nature. 
Here the matter rested in Council, but Mr. Drayton did 
not rest with it; he resorted again to the newspapers and 
published a protest in the Gazette of the 13th of February, 
1775. This greatly offended the Chief Justice, but in the 
present condition of the people he dared not arrest Mr. 
Timothy, the publisher of the paper, though Mr. Speaker 
Lowndes was no longer a judge to have released him, if 
he had. The appointed day for considering the bill again 
arrived, and though one member was still absent, the bill 
was passed in sullen silence — the Chief Justice voting. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 781 

however, against it. The Commons had triumplied. They 
had compelled the Council to transact business, without 
their submitting to the "Additional Instruction." This 
was the first bill ^^assed by the General Assembly in more 
than four years, and, with a bill to revive and continue 
certain acts, the last passed under the Royal government. ^ 
Mr. Drayton, too, had triumphed. But his triumph in 
the Council was but brief. The Chief Justice was deter- 
mined that he should no longer sit at the King's Board 
and fight his authority. In his place at the Council he 
made a violent invective against Mr. Drayton; accused 
him of having made publications against the King; that 
even while a judge he had delivered charges stirring up 
the people to sedition ; that he frequented popular assem- 
blies, where he loudly inveighed against the government, 
for all of which he ought to be removed from the Council. 
He concluded by moving an address to the Lieutenant 
Governor for his suspension as a counsellor, which 
motion was immediately seconded. But Mr. Drayton 
was equal to the occasion. In his place at the Board 
he replied that to be obnoxious to those in Council, to 
whom he so found himself, evinced his attachment to his 
country, since those who were so against him were them- 
selves obnoxious to the whole people. He held it an honor 
that those should desire his suspension against whom 
the province had publicly complained not only to the 
Lieutenant Governor, but to his Majesty the King. Mr. 
Drayton was interrupted, the question was put, and an 
address for his suspension Avas voted by the three place- 
men — the Avhole Board on the occasion being composed 
of only four members, Mr. Drayton himself being the 
fourth. The address thus voted was on the same day, 
the 13th of February, 1775, presented to the Lieutenant 

^Memoirs of the lievultition (Drayton), vol. I, 209-211. 



782 HISTORY O^ SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor, who required of the addressers a specification of 
facts upon which their complaint was founded. A report 
was accordingly made charging Mr. Draj^ton with particu- 
lar acts as grounds for his removal, which was adopted by 
a majority of Crown officers and placemen. The only three 
members of the Council at this time who were natives — 
i.e. Mr. Drayton himself, his father, Mr. John Drayton, 
and Mr. Barnard Elliott — entered afterward on the jour- 
nals a protest against these proceedings. But the Lieu- 
tenant Governor, notwithstanding his close relationship to 
Mr. Drayton, formally suspended him.^ Poor Governor 
Bull! he had a hard time of it between his friends and 
his relations, his country and his King. 

The 17th day of February had been set aside by the 
Provincial Congress as a day of fasting, humiliation, and 
prayer, and when it arrived the Commons' House went in 
procession, with their mace before them, to St. Philip's 
Church, where a pious and excellent sermon was deliv- 
ered by the Rev. Robert Smith. ^ Thence returning to 
the affairs of the colony, as the Council had passed an 
act, and thereby yielded the long-contested point, the 
Commons sent them on the 26th of February, 1775, a 
reviving bill, by which, among other laws revived and 

1 Memoirs of the Bevohttion (Drayton), vol. I, 209-214. 

2 Ibid., 214, 215. 

This mace, borne before the Commons to St. Philip's Church, is the 
still handsome silver mace which now probably for near a century and a 
half has lain upon the Speaker's table in the House of Representatives in 
South Carolina. There has been much speculation as to its history. It 
has been alleged to be none other than Cromwell's "Bauble" ; again 
it has been confidently asserted to have been brought out by Sir Francis 
Nicholson, the provisional Royal Governni-, in 1721. An examination by 
Mr. James Allan, Jr., an expert silversmith, made at the request of the 
author has, however, definitely settled the date of its manufacture. Mr. 
Allan finds, from the hall marks and other intrinsic evidence, that the 
mace was manufactured in 1756. The probability, then, is that the mace 



tTKDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 783 

coutiiiuecl, the general duty act was renewed — but to 
have effect for one year only. The power was thus 
retained to the Commons' House of Assembly; for at tlie 
expiration of the 3^ear, unless the government satisfied 
the people, it would have no means of supporting the 
civil establishment, the clergy, or the Crown officers. 
The session was then closed, in a better temper than for 
some years, and the House adjourned to the 20th day of 
April. 

The people now anxiously looked for advices from 
Europe as to the effect of the measures of the Continen- 
tal Congress, and the mass of citizens and men of prudence 
and moderation ardently longed for a reconciliation with 
the mother country, and awaited with the fondest hopes and 
with a genuine loyalt}^ manifestations of good will from 
the Throne. As yet no one in South Carolina was bold 
enough to advocate independence of the mother country, 
and few indeed there were who even secretly entertained 
such a wish. The people were still loyal to old England, 
regarding all their troubles as owing to a wicked minis- 
try, resistance to which on their part in America would 
enable their friends, the Whigs, at home to overthrow. 
Thus it was that William Henry Drayton, while a mem- 
ber of the Council, and bearing a commission of Judge 
under the King, could take the part he did. Had he at 

was brought out by Governor William Henry Lyttleton, who succeeded 
Governor Glen, in 1750. Joshua Quincy mentions it in his Memoirs. 
He says, March 19, 1773: "Spent all the morning in hearing debates in 
the House, and had an opportunity of hearing the best speakers in the 
province. The first thing done at the meeting is to bring the mace — a 
Very superb and elegant one, which cost ninety guineas — and lay it on 
the table before the speaker." The mace was carried away by the British 
army upon the evacuation of Charlestown, in 178o, and somehow found 
its way to the Bank of the United States, in Philadelphia, where it was 
discovered by the Hon. Langdon Cheves, when he became president of 
that institution, and returned to the State. 



784 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that time contemplated the independence of the colonies 
as the result of this agitation, he would have been more 
than a rebel — he would have been a traitor — in doing 
so. Indeed, even yet, had separation been openly avowed 
as the object of the leaders against the government, there 
is little doubt that the movement would have been over- 
whelmingly defeated. Such was the situation of affairs 
when advices which came put an end to every hope of 
immediate accommodation. 

On the 1st of February Chatham had reappeared in 
Parliament with an elaborate bill for settling the troubles 
in America. It asserted in strong terms the right of 
Parliament to bind the colonies in all matters of com- 
merce and navigation ; but at the same time it recognized 
the sole right of the colonists to tax themselves, guaran- 
teed the inviolability of their charters, and made the 
tenure of their judges the same as in England. It pro- 
posed to make the Congress which had met in Philadel- 
phia an official and permanent body, and asked it to make 
a free grant for imperial purposes. The bill was not even 
admitted to a second reading. 

Several other propositions tending toward conciliation 
were, however, made. On March 22, Burke, in one of 
his greatest speeches, moved a series of resolutions rec- 
ommending a repeal of the recent acts complained of in 
America, reforming the Admiralty Court and the posi- 
tion of the judges, and leaving American taxation to the 
American Assemblies, without toucliing upon any ques- 
tion of abstract right. These and other like attempts 
were defeated by enormous majorities. Though it was 
said that the King had declared that the petition from 
the Congress was a decent one. Parliament declined to 
receive it. The colonial agents were refused even a 
hearing upon the subject. Parliament at the same time 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 785 

took stringent measures to enforce obedience. It pro- 
nounced Massachusetts in a state of rebellion, and voted 
six thousand additional men for the land and sea ser- 
vice; it answered the non-importation and non-ex]3orta- 
tion agreements of the colonies by an act restraining the 
New England States from all trade with Great Britain, 
Ireland, and the West Indies, and from all participation 
ill the Newfoundland fisheries, and soon after extended 
the same disabilities to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mary- 
land, Virginia, and South Carolina. It was resolved also to 
increase the British force in Boston to ten thousand men. 

Lord North at the same time was careful to announce 
that these coercive measures would at once cease upon the 
submission of the colonies, and on February 20, 1775, he 
had, to the great surprise of Parliament, introduced a 
conciliatory resolution which was very unpalatable to 
many of his followers and very inconsistent with some 
of his earlier speeches. His proposition was, that if, 
and as long as, any colony thought fit of its own accord 
to make such a contribution to the common defence of the 
empire, and such a fixed provision for the support of the 
civil government and administration of justice, as met 
the approbation of Parliament, it should be exempted 
from all imperial taxation for the purpose of revenue. 

But in introducing this measure Lord North had ex- 
pressly declared that the right of taxing every part of the 
British dominions must by no means be given up. That 
it was best at the outset to let the colonies know what 
was expected, and to learn whether they meant to dispute 
the whole of the British authority or not. That the 
Congress of the colonies was an illegal Assembly; for 
they were separate States, having no connection but in 
their relation to Great Britain. 

At an earlier stage of the dispute the resolution might 

VOL. II — 3e 



786 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

have been accepted as a reasonable compromise, but in the 
midst of the coercive measures that had been adopted it 
pleased no one. Burke and the Whig party denounced it 
as not stating what sum the colonists were expected to 
pay, leaving them to bid one against another, to bargain 
with the mother country, and in the meantime holding 
them in duress with fleets and armies, like prisoners who 
had not yet paid their ransom. Barre assailed it with 
great bitterness, as intended for no other object than to 
excite divisions in America. The colonists generally re- 
pudiated it as interfering with their absolute right of dis- 
posing as they pleased of their own property. ^ This view 
was taken of it in South Carolina; and now, regarding 
hostilities as inevitable, without passing any formal reso- 
lution it was understood in the General Committee that 
the public military stores should be immediately seized. 
The Provincial Congress had adopted a resolution "that 
a secret committee of five proper persons be appointed by 
the President of this Congress to procure and distribute 
such articles as the present insecure state of the interior 
parts of this colony renders necessary for the better de- 
fence and security of the good people of those parts and 
other necessary 'purposes.'''' Such were the indefinite terms, 
calculated to bear ample construction, which covered a 
well-understood and definite purpose. Colonel Charles 
Pinckney, the President of the Provincial Congress, in 
pursuance of this resolution, appointed the committee. 
He first nominated William Henry Drayton, who was 
allowed to select his associates. At his desire the Presi- 
dent appointed Arthur Middleton and Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney; William Gibbes, having many schooners and 
stores which might be needed, and Edward Weyman, 

^ England in the Eighteenth Centiiry (Lecky), vol. Ill, 457-461 ; Me- 
moirs of the Bevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 216-219. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 787 

active in confidential services, were added, completing 
the committee. This committee, the night after their 
appointment, seized the public powder at Hobcaw maga- 
zine and the powder in the magazine at Cochran's on the 
Neck, while a third party broke open the armory in the 
upjier part of the State House and removed eight hundred 
stand of arms, two hundred cutlasses, besides cartouches, 
flints, and matches. On this occasion many of the most 
respectable gentlemen attended: Colonel Charles Pinck- 
ney, President of the Provincial Congress ; Colonel Henry 
Laurens, Chairman of the General Committee; Thomas 
Lynch, one of the delegates to the Continental Congress ; 
Benjamin Huger, William Johnson, William Bull, and 
William Henry Drayton, the two last nephews of the 
Lieutenant Governor. 

In this affair the greatest order was observed. No dis- 
guises were used ; but the night was chosen for the trans- 
action, as there was no reason, it was said, needlessly to 
insult the authority of the Lieutenant Governor by per- 
forming it in open day, when the public purpose could be 
equally promoted by avoiding such conduct. The seizure 
of the powder and arms, so immediately following the late 
advices from London, clearly indicated who had taken 
them. The Lieutenant Governor was sadly perplexed. 
He convened his Council; but after much consideration 
they could only advise him to send a mild message to 
the Commons' House, then sitting, informing them of 
the event. The Assembly, composed of the very men, 
as the Lieutenant Governor no doubt well knew, who 
liad been engaged in the affair, gravely carried on the 
farce by referring the Governor's message to a committee 
Avhich had been already appointed "to examiii,e the public 
arms"; and on the 27th of April Mr. Beer^brought in a 
report to the House on the subject, which was agreed to, 



(0» HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and which reads very much like a verdict of a coroner's 
jury of the present day sitting in a case of lynching. 
They reported, " That with all the inquiry your commit- 
tee have made, they are not able to obtain any certain 
intelligence relative to the removal of the public arms 
and gunpowder as mentioned in his Honor's message; 
but think that there is reason to suppose that some of the 
inhabitants of this colony may have been induced to take 
so extraordinary and uncommon a step in consequence of 
the late alarming accounts from Great Britain." This 
report was sent by Rawlins Lowndes, the Speaker, to his 
Honor, and was all the satisfaction the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor could get.i 

But, notwithstanding these measures, there was great 
languor and indifference on the part of the people through- 
out the colony. As in all such cases, the aggressive party 
was carrying its measures with a high hand; but it had no 
general popular support behind it outside of the town. 
So much was this felt, that the delegates who were about 
to sail for Philadelphia to meet the Continental Congress 
wished to have distinct instructions of the Assembly be- 
fore they went. For this purpose Mr. Lynch, one of the 
delegates, on the 28th of April, 1775, moved that the 
House resolve itself into a committee of the whole to take 
into consideration the present state of the colony, which 
being agreed to. Colonel Parsons took the chair, and the 
doors of the House being shut, this important question 
was propounded by Mr. Lynch, "If the delegates from 
tliis colony should in General Congress think it expedi- 
ent to engage a sum of money as an aid from the province 
to the American Association, would the Assembly ratify 
and raise that quota which they should engage for the 
contribution of this country?" 

1 Memoirs of the lievolution (Drayton) vol. I, 221-226. 



UNDER THE EOYAL GOVERNMENT 789 

Mr. Lowndes, who with John Rutledge best represented 
the true sentiment of the people generally, at least that 
of the people on the coast, that is, those who were op- 
posed to the conduct of the ministry, but who already had 
begun to apprehend that this colony would be unwittingly 
pushed into measures looking to the separation of the 
colonies from the mother country, again, as he had before 
at the first general meeting on the 7th of July, 1774, 
pleaded for moderation. He hoped the delegates would 
be cautious, as it was yet too early to proceed to extremi- 
ties. He again stated his position, which was no doubt 
the position of the great majority even of those who were 
for resistance ; that while he denied the right of Parlia- 
ment to take money out of the pockets of the colonists, 
he yet maintained the right of Parliament to legislate for 
them in all national and commercial cases. Fears and 
distrusts appeared among the members, but Mr. Lowndes 
withdrew his opposition, and the committee unanimously 
agreed they would fulfil all the engagements the dele- 
gates should make on the part of the colony for promot- 
ing the public welfare. The committee then rose; the 
Speaker, Mr. Lowndes, resumed his chair. Colonel Par- 
sons reported that the committee asked leave to sit again, 
but no other action was taken. ^ 

On the 3d day of May, 1775, the delegates sailed for 
Philadelphia, leaving the public anxiously awaiting the 
determination of the approaching Continental Congress. 
A few days after, i.e. on the 8th, a vessel arrived from 
Salem, Massachusetts, bringing the intelligence that civil 
war had begun in that province. The news of the battle 
of Lexington was immediately laid before the General 
Committee, and a vote passed to summon the Provincial 
Congress to meet on the 1st day of June, as the 20th, to 

^Memoirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 22G-229. 



790 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

which it stood adjourned, was deemed too distant a day. 
This news forced the decision of many of those who were 
doubtful. Under its influence Barnard Elliott resigned 
his seat as a King's counsellor, which he had held up to 
this time, and associated himself with the members of the 
General Committee.^ 

In the meantime it was desired by some in the General 
Committee to take measures for the defence of Charles- 
town and its harbor; but as the movers feared that if 
they announced such decisive measures before the Gen- 
eral Committee there might be some delay in the execu- 
tion of them, and thereby the scheme being divulged 
might be frustrated, it was proposed to exact an oath of 
secrecy from the members present. But the very so- 
lemnity of this proposal, it was observed, defeated its 
purpose. It aroused at once an apprehension that an 
immediate revolution was to be ushered in. A large 
number of the members refused to take the oath. They 
would not swear in the dark; the oath proposed might 
militate against others which they had taken, and then 
they would be guilty of perjury. In vain were they 
assured to the contrary. They would not leap in the 
dark. On the 10th of May a special committee made 
another proposition, that of an association of defence, to 
be signed by the inhabitants generally. This was post- 
poned to the next day. On the 11th the association was 
the subject of a long debate of seven hours. The form 
was objected to. It was not known to what it would 

1 Memoirs of the Revohition (Drayton), vol. I, 231, 248. The brigan- 
tine Industry, Captain Allen, which brought the news, sailed from Salem 
on the 2oth of April and arrived on May the 8th. So. Ca. Gazette and 
Country Journal, May 9, 1775 ; So. Ca. and Am. Gen. Gazette, May 12, 
1775. The express forwarded by the committee left Wallingsford, Con- 
necticut, the day before the Industry sailed, but did not reach Charles- 
town until three days after the arrival of that vessel. 



UNDER THK ROYAL GOVERNMENT 791 

extend. At length the foim was made acceptable; but 
it was insisted that to sign it immediately would be a 
premature step. In vain it was urged that an immediate 
subscription would be of infinitely good effect; it would 
be a test and the means of common defence against any 
danger. The conservatives still contended it ought not 
to be entered into before the meeting of the Provincial 
Congress, to whom it ought to be referred, and whose 
resolution thereon would be binding. The whole matter 
was postponed; but it had been demonstrated that very 
nearly one-half of the General Committee present, twenty- 
three to twenty-five, were unwilling to commit them- 
selves to any active measures of hostility.^ 

The Commons' House of Assembly had been adjourned 
by the Lieutenant Governor to the 1st day of June, the 
day on which the Provincial Congress had also been sum- 
moned to meet. This was convenient certainly, as the 
members of the Commons were almost all members of the 
Congress. The Commons, knowing on how slight a ten- 
ure they held their sittings at this time, hurried on with 
business without even sending a message to the Lieuten- 
ant Governor to inform him that they had met; they 
passed a resolution providing for the issuance of certifi- 
cates in payment of the public debts for the year 1774, 
and were engaged in the passage of an ordinance to pro- 
hibit the exportation of rice and Indian corn, when they 
were summoned to the Council Chamber by the Lieuten- 
ant Governor. The House attended and was immediately 
prorogued to the nineteenth day of June. This was tlie 
last official intercourse which Lieutenant Governor Bull 
had with the Commons' House of Assembly.^ 

The Provincial Congress having met on the same day, 

1 Mnnnirs of the Revolution (Drayton), vol. I, 247, 248. 

2 Ibid., 250-262. 



792 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

agreeably to the summonses which had been issued, 
Colonel Charles Pinckney, then President, for whom it 
is probable matters were now going too fast, resigned 
that office, and Colonel Henry Laurens, the late Chair- 
man of the General Committee, was chosen in his place. 
The Congress at once proceeded to consider the subject 
recommended by the General Committee, first, however, 
appointing a committee of ways and means for placing 
the colony in a state of defence. The proposition of an 
association to be entered into by the inhabitants of the 
colony was brought before the Congress at an early hour, 
but much opposition was made to its passage. It was 
contended by Mr. Heyward, who was afterward one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and others 
that there was no occasion for such an association. It 
prevailed, however, and on the 4th of June, after divine 
service had been performed before the Congress, Henry 
Laurens, then President, signed the instrument, and then 
the members present respectively affixed their names, 
binding themselves "under every tie of religion and 
honor to associate as a band in the defence of South 
Carolina against every foe," . . . "solemnly engaging 
that whenever our Continental or Provincial Councils 
shall deem it necessary, we will go forth and be ready 
to sacrifice our lives and fortunes to secure her freedom 
and safety;." . . . "that we will hold all those persons 
inimical to the liberties of the colonies who shall refuse 
to subscribe this association." 

On the fourth day of the session, the Provincial Con- 
gress resolved to raise fifteen hundred infantr}-, rank and 
file, in two regiments, and four hundred and fifty horse 
rangers, constituting another regiment. On the 14th of 
June one million of money was voted. Commissioners 
of a treasury were appointed and a Council of Safety was 



UNDER THE KOYAL GOVERNMENT 793 

elected. The Council of Safety was composed of Henry- 
Laurens, Charles Pinckney, Rawlins Lowndes, Thomas 
Ferguson, Miles Brewton, Arthur Middleton, Thomas 
Hey ward, Jr., Thomas Bee, John Huger, James Parsons, 
William Henry Drayton, Benjamin Elliot, and William 
Williamson. As a council they were vested with supreme 
power over the army, the militia, and all military affairs ; 
in short, they were to be the executive power of the 
colony. To them was delegated the authority of grant- 
ing commissions, suspending officers, ordering court-mar- 
tials, directing, regulating, maintaining, a.nd ordering 
the army and all military establishments, and of drawing 
on the Treasury for all purposes of public service. Non- 
subscribers to the Association were made amenable to the 
General Committee, and by them punishable according to 
sound policy. Those who violated or refused obedience 
to the authority of the Congress were made amenable 
before the parochial and district committees, and upon 
their being found guilty and being contumacious they 
were to be declared inimical to the liberties of America 
and objects of the public resentment. It was also re- 
solved that all absentees holding estates in this colony, 
except those who were abroad on account of their health, 
and those above sixty years of age or under twenty-one, 
ought forthwith to return, and that no persons holding 
estates in the colony ought to withdraw from its service 
without giving good and sufficient reasons for their doing 
so to the Provincial Congress or, during its recess, to 
the General Committee. Another general election of 
members of the Congress was ordered to take place 
in the country on the 7th and 8th days of August, and 
in Charlestown on the 28th and 29th of that month, and 
the Congress was declared to be expired on the 6th day 
of August, but the Council of Safety and all committees 



794 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

were continued until the meeting of the new Provincial 
Congress. 1 

The Congress prepared an address to Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Bull, laying before him their proceedings, and 
declaring their true motives. This they proposed to 
present to him just before they adjourned. This courtesy 
they were willing to show Governor Bull, but they were 
not willing to commit themselves in any way to his suc- 
cessor. Learning, therefore, on the 17th of June, that 
the man-of-war Scorpion^ having on board his Excellency, 
Lord William Campbell, had appeared on the coast, to 
avoid any intercourse with the new Governor, two mem- 
bers were dispatched in haste with the address to the 
Lieutenant Governor, who was at his country seat, Ash- 
ley Hall, a few miles from Charlestown. The deputation 
did not, however, arrive there until the sound of the 
saluting guns informed them that his Lordship had ar- 
rived. This afforded Lieutenant Governor Bull a plau- 
sible excuse for declining to receive the address; for he 
could not do so, he said, as the new Governor was now 
in the colony. In fact, however, his functions did not 
actually cease until the new Governor's commission had 
been read and proclaimed. Governor Bull no doubt 
shrank from receiving an address announcing to him 
the overthrow of the government he had so long admin- 
istered and so earnestly endeavored to maintain. 

The public career of this eminent citizen ended with 
the overthrow of the Royal government. As Speaker of 
the Commons, member of Council, General of Militia, 
and Lieutenant Governor, he liad been in the public 
service for thirty-five years. He had administered the 
government at various times, in all for nearly nine years, 
a rule longer than that of any other Governor of South 
1 Memoirs of the Bevolution (Drayton), vol. I, 256. 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 795 

Carolina except Joseph West under the Proprietary gov- 
ernment. He had had a most difficult part to perform, 
hut so strictly had he adhered to the line of his duty to 
his King and to his country, as he conceived it, that not 
in all these troublesome times had he incurred the enmity 
of any class of his fellow-citizens. So beloved was he, 
that tradition has brought down to us the opinion 
entertained at the time, that had the government of the 
province been left entirely and untrammelled in his 
hands, had he been implicitly trusted and treated by the 
government at home with the generous confidence he so 
well deserved, and given full commission with plenary 
powers, he might possibly have successfully resisted the 
revolutionary movements in South Carolina, though led 
by Gadsden with all the ardor and impetuosity of his 
character, and supported by the wisdom and eloquence of 
the Rutledges and the firm but moderate counsels of Raw- 
lins Lowndes and Henry Laurens. This, as we have 
observed, could scarcely have been possible; but it is a 
great encomium upon his character that such an opinion 
should have been entertained, and that in all the bitter- 
ness of that time tradition has brought down to us no 
unkind word of him who stood so long in the position 
most exposed to the virulence of party feeling. He died 
in England, 1791, in voluntary exile from the land he 
loved so well. He left no children, but many parents 
called theirs by his name.^ 

Had the government in England confirmed Charles 
Pinckney's appointment as Chief Justice, and made the 

1 It is an interesting fact, illustrative of the kindly relations that, 
amidst all the troubles of these times, Governor Bull maintained with 
those most opposed to his political views, that by his will, executed in 
London, in 1790, he appointed Christopher Gadsden and Rawlins 
Lowndes executors of his estate. Will Book, B, 623, Probate office, 
Charleston. 



796 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Bulls — father and son — full Governors, and gathered 
around them the young men returning from the univer- 
sities, — Peter Manigault; the three Rutledges, John, 
Edward, and Hugh; and the three Pinckneys, Charles, 
Charles Cotesworth, and Thomas; Arthur Middleton, 
William Henry Drayton, and Thomas Heyward, — and 
thus built up a colonial support; had it allowed domestic 
legislation to be perfected upon the approval of its Gov- 
ernor in Carolina, without the delay of transmission to 
the Board of Trade in England, — Gadsden might not 
have been able to carry South Carolina with the northern 
provinces on a theory of taxation in the application of 
which the colony had no immediate material interest. 
But there was no opening for young men of aspiration 
in the colony ; places of profit and honor were practically 
closed to them, and filled by placemen and strangers 
from abroad. William Henry Drayton had tried his for- 
tune with the King; but he was soon made to realize that 
there was no chance of real promotion under his Majesty. 
There was no home rule. No measure, however pressing, 
could be passed into law until it had received the sanc- 
tion of a Board sitting three thousand miles away, with- 
out the slightest interest in the welfare of the colony. 

The cannon which saluted the arrival of Lord William 
Campbell as Governor announced the end of the Royal 
government in the province of South Carolina. His 
Lordship's struggle to recover it is a part of the history 
of the Revolution, and the story must be reserved for a 
work upon that subject. 

The revolutionary movements so far, it will be observed, 
had been confined to the town — Charlestown — and to the 
surrounding low country, — in a great measure, indeed, 
to the town itself, where Gadsden and the Liberty Tree 
party controlled. Unlike what took place in other colo- 



UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 797 

nies, its leaders were with scarce an exception church- 
men. Of the Council of Safety — the new governing 
body — all were churchmen; of the thirteen members, 
six were from St. Philip's, two from St. Michael's, 
the other five from St. Andrew's, St. John's, and St. 
Paul's. They were all of the stock of the old settlers. 
Henry Laurens, the President, was a Huguenot, the other 
members were English or Irish. On the other hand, the 
Germajis in Orangeburg, in Saxe-Gotha, and in the Dutch 
Fork between the Broad and the Saluda rivers looked on 
with stolid indifference, if not with aversion. King 
George was to them not only King of England, but he 
was Elector of Hanover as well. They were prospering 
in a quiet way, and were not inclined to involve them- 
selves in a revolution upon abstract principles of govern- 
ment, in which they were not interested. The Irish at 
Williamsburg Avere ultimately to furnish splendid parti- 
san soldiers for Marion's brigade; but as yet they do not 
appear to have been more interested than consulted about 
the proceedings in the town. The Welch on the Pee 
Dee, with few exceptions, were alike indifferent. The 
Scotch refugees from Culloden had had enough of rebel- 
lion in 1745 to last them for a while. The Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians, stretching across the province from the 
Waxhaws to Lonof Cane, used little tea in their new set- 
tlement, and were little disposed to follow the churchmen 
on the coast, in whose Assembly they could obtain but 
small, if an3% representation, Gibert's Huguenots and 
Stumpel's Germans in Abbeville were too much engaged 
in settling themselves in their new homes to take part in 
the controversies in the low country. 

All these people were at last to be aroused, when the 
tide of war rolled back u])on them. But it required 
British bayonets, not to conquer, but to drive them into 



798 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rebellion. South Carolina was to become the bloody 
ground of the Revolution, but this was at last more the 
work of Sir Henry Clinton's unwise policy in repudiating 
the paroles he had accepted; of Tarleton's sabres, as 
they flashed upon the Scotch-Irish, whom he mistook 
for rebels because they were dissenters; and of the 
licentiousness, cruelty, rapacity, and tyranny of other 
British officers, than of Gadsden's zeal or Rutledge's 
eloquence. Indeed, it will appear that it was while all 
the original leaders in these movements were in exile or 
in prison that the seeds they had sown sprang up under 
the very heels of the invaders, and that, though abandoned 
by the General Congress, the people of South Carolina rose 
under Sumter, Marion, and Pickens, overthrew the forces 
of the enemy, and redeemed the State; recalled Cornwallis 
from his victorious progress, thus frustrating the grand 
plan by which his Lordship was to have moved through 
the Southern provinces and, reenforced from New York, 
by the way of Portsmouth, Virginia, was to have advanced 
on the Jerseys and taken Washington in the rear, as 
Sherman, eighty years after, moved upon Lee. It was, 
as we shall see, by the uprising of the people of South 
Carolina that the time was gained, so essential to the 
whole American cause, while Washington waited the 
release of Rochambeau at Newport, and the coming of 
the second French fleet, to render Yorktown possible. 



APPENDIX 
I 

GOVERNORS OF SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER ROYAL 
GOVERNMENT 

James Moore. Revolutionar}^ Governor from 1719 to 
1721. 

Sir Francis Nicholson. Provisional Governor from 1721 
to his death in 1729. Administered the government from 
1721 to 1724, when he returned to England. 

Arthur Middleton. Administered the government as 
President of Council during absence of Governor Nichol- 
son, from 1721 to 1729. 

Robert Johnson. Governor from 1729 to his death in 
1735. 

Thomas Broughton. Lieutenant Governor from 1729 
to his death in 1737. Administered the government from 
1735 to 1737. 

William Bull. Administered the government as- Presi- 
dent of Council from 1737 to 1738. Lieutenant Governor 
from 1738 to his death in 1755, and, as such, administered 
the government from 1738 to 1743. 

Samuel Horsey. Governor, 1738. Died soon after ap- 
pointment; did not come out. 

James Glen. Governor from 1738 to 1756. Appointed 
in 1738, but did not come out until 1743. Administered 
the government from 1743 to 1756, when he was super- 
seded. 

799 



800 APPENDIX 

William Henry Lyttleton. Governor from 1756 to 1760, 
when he was transferred to the government of Jamaica. 

William Bull (2d). Lieutenant Governor from 1759 to 
1775. Administered the government from 1760 to 1761. 

Thomas PoiV7ial. Governor, 1760. Did not come out. 

Thomas Boone. Governor from 1761 to 1764.^ 

William Bull (2d) administered the government from 
1764 to 1766. 

Lord Charles Greville Montagu. Govenior from 1766 
to 1733. Administered the government from 1766 to the 
23d of May, 1768. 

William Bull (2d) administered the government, during 
the absence of Lord Charles G. Montagu, from the 23d 
of May, 1768, to the 30th of October, 1768. 

Lord Charles Grreville Montagu administered the gov- 
ernment from the 30th of October, 1768, to 1769. 

William Bull (2d) administered the government from 
1769 to 1771, during the absence of Lord Charles G. 
Montagu. 

Lord Charles Greville Montagu administered the gov- 
ernment from 1771 to 1773, when he left the province. 

William Bull (2d) administered the government from 
1773 to 1775. 

Lord William Oamphell. Governor from 1775 to 1776, 
when tlie Royal government was finally overthrown. 

1 It is stated in the body of this work, pp. 352-353, that Governor 
Boone is supposed to have been the son of Thomas Boone, Esq., in the 
County of Kent, England ; but since these pages have been in press deeds 
have been found, the recitals of which show that Thomas Boone was the 
son of Charles Boone of this province, and nephew of Joseph Boone who 
figured so conspicuously under the Proprietary and in the establishment 
of the Royal government ; but nothing more is known of him. 



APPENDIX 801 



II 



MEMBERS OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL IN SOUTH CARO- 
LINA UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 

The following list of the members of his Majesty's 
Council, from 1720 to 1776, has been compiled for the 
author by Mr. D. D.Wallace of Newberry, South Carolina, 
from the Public Records of South Carolina, at the Capitol 
in Columbia, South Carolina. It is as complete as it is now 
possible to make it ; but there are doubtless omissions 
which the records do not allow us to supply. The dates 
of the appointments are given and are approximately cor- 
rect ; but the time of service varied. Under Sir Francis 
Nicholson the Council was to consist of twelve persons, 
to be appointed by liis Majesty upon the recommendation 
of the Governor. Five were ordinarily necessary to con- 
stitute a quorum; but three, upon extraordinary occasions, 
mio'ht act. The council was thus constituted throughout 
the Royal government : — 

Arthur Middleton, Alexander Skene, Francis Yonge, 
IJcnjamin Schenkingh, William Bull, Charles Hart, Ben- 
jamin de la Conseillere, William Gibbon, Ralph Izard, 
1721 ; James Kinloch, 1729 ; Thomas Broughton, Robert 
Wright, John Fenwicke, Joseph Wragg, Thomas Waring, 
John Hammerton, 1730; Alexander Vander Dussen, 1746; 
Richard Hill, Edward Fenwicke, Hector Beringer de 
Beaufain, 1747; John Colleton, William Bull, Jr., 1748; 
Francis Kinloch, Charles Pinckney, Edmund Atkin, 
Francis Kinloch, John Cleland, William Middleton, James 
Graeme, Isaac Holmes, 1750 ; William Wragg, George 
Saxby, 1753 ; Peter Leigh, John Drayton, 1754 ; James 
Michie, Otliniel Beale, 1755 ; Egerton Leigh, George 
Austin, 1759 ; Daniel Blake, Henry INIiddleton, John 

VOL. II 3 F 



802 APPENDIX 

Giierard, Charles Shinner, Jolm Rattray, 1761 ; Thomas 
Skoetowe, John Colleton, Bart., Henry Laurens, 1761 ; 
Daniel Moore, 1767; Rowland Rugely, 1769; William 
Henry Drayton, Thomas Knox Gordon, John Stnart, 
Bernard Elliot, 1771 ; John Burn, 1772 ; Thomas Irwin, 
1775. 



Ill 



SPEAKEES OF THE COMMONS HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF 
SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 

James Moore, 1721-1723; Thomas Broughton, 1724- 

1726 ; William Donning, 1731 ; John Lloyd, 1731 ; Will- 
iam Donning, 1731 ; Paul Jenys, 1733-1736 ; Charles 
Pinckney, 1736-1739 ; William Bull, Jr., 1740 ; Charles 
Pinckney, 1740; William Bull, Jr., 1740-1742; Ben- 
jamin Whitaker, 1743 ; William Bull, Jr., 1744-1745 ; 
Henry Middleton, 1746 ; William Bull, Jr., 1746-1747 ; 
Henry Middleton, 1747; William Bull, Jr., 1748; Andrew 
Rutledge, 1749 ; William Bull, Jr., 1749 ; Andrew Rut- 
ledge, 1750-1752; James Michie, 1753-1754; Henry 
Middleton, 1755 ; Benjamin Smith, 1755-1762 ; RaAvlins 
Lowndes, 1764-1765; Peter Manigault, 1766-1772; Raw- 
lins Lowndes, 1772-1775. 

IV 

LAW OFFICERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER THE 
ROYAL GOVERNMENT 

Chief Justices 

Charles Hill, 1722-1724; Thomas Hepworth, 1724- 

1727 ; Richard AUein, 1727-1730 ; Robert Wright, 1730- 



APPENDIX 803 

1739 ; Benjamin Whitaker, 1789-1750 ; James Graeme, 
1750-1752; Charles Pinckney, 1752-1753; Peter Leigh, 
1753-1759; James Michie, 1759; William Simpson, 1761- 
1762 ; Charles Shinner, 1762-1768 ; William Wragg, 
1769 (appointed but declined the office); Thomas Knox 
Gordon, 1771-1776. 

Assistant Justices (^LaymeTi) 

Samuel Eveleigh, 1720 ; John Fenwicke, 1721 ; Alexan- 
der Parris, 1721 ; George Smith, 1722 ; Joseph Wragg, 
1722; William Dry, 1722; John Garwood, 1725; John 
Croft, 1727; Daniel Green, 1727; Thomas Cooper, 1729; 
Thomas Dale, 1736 ; Robert Auston, 1737 ; Benjamin de 
la Conseilliere, 1737 ; Thomas Lamboll, 1737 ; Isaac 
jNIazyck, 1740 ; William Bull, Jr., 1740 ; Robert Yonge,- 
1740 ; Othnile Beale, 1741 ; John Lining, 1744 ; John 
Drayton, 1753 ; William Simpson, 1760 ; Robert Pringle, 
1760 ; William Burrows, 1764 ; Robert Brisbane, 1764; 
Rawlins Lowndes, 1766; Benjamin Smith, 1766; Daniel 
D'Oyley, 1766 ; George Gabriel Powell, 1769 ; Edward 
Savage, 1771 ; John Murray, 1771 ; John Fewtrell, 1771; 
Mathews Cosslett, 1772 ; William Henry Drayton, 1774 ; 
William Gregory, 1774. 

Judges of the Court of Admiralty 

James Smith, 1721; William Blakeway, 1724-1727 
Benjamin Whitaker, 1727 ; Maurice Lewis, 1727-1739 
William Trewin, 1739-1741 ; James Graeme, 1741-1749 
James Michie, 1752 ; Peter Leigh, 1758 ; John Rattray, 
1760 ; Egerton Leigh, 1761. 



804 APPENDIX 

Attorney Generals 

Benjamin Whitaker, 1724 ; Edward Whitaker, 1726 ; 
Benjamin Whitaker, 1728; James Abercrombe, 1739; 
Charles Pinckney, 1733 ; Adam Graeme, 1762 ; James 
Moultrie, 1764 ; John Rutledge, 1764 ; Egerton Leigh, 
1765 ; James Simpson, 1775. 



A LIST OF THE SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL 
CONGRESS HELD IN CHAKLESTOWN IN SOUTH CARO- 
LINA ON THE IITH DAY OF JANUARY, 1775 

For the Parish of St. Philip and St. Michael, Charlestown. 
— Colonel Charles Pincknej^ Mr. John Neufville, Roger 
Smith, Esq., Mr, Peter Bacot, Mr. Daniel Cannon, Colonel 
Henry Laurens, Mr. Thomas Corbett, Thomas Heyward, 
Jr., Esq., Christopher Gadsden, Esq., Isaac Huger, P]sq., 
Thomas Savage, P]sq., John Edwards, Esq., Miles Brew- 
ton, Esq., Peter Timothy, Mr. Joseph Verree, Arthur 
Middleton, Esq., Mr. Edward Weyman, Mr. John Ernest 
Poyas, Mr. Anthony Toomer, Mr. Cato Asli, Mr. James 
Brown, Mr. Daniel Legare, Sr., Mr. Joshua Lock wood. 
Captain Owen Roberts, Mr. Theodore Trezevant, ]\Ir. 
Mark Morris, Rev. Mr. William Tennent, Mr. John Ber- 
wick, Mr. Felix Long, Mr. Michael Kalteisen. 

For the Parish of Christ Chcrch. — John Rutledge, Esq., 
Arn. Vanderhorst, Esq., Clement Lemprierre, Esq., John 
Sand Dart, Esq., Gabriel Ca})ers, Esq., ]\h-. Isaac Legare. 

For St. John's., Berkeley County. — James Ravenel, Daniel 
Ravenel, Job Marion, John Frierson, Esqs., Mr. Gabr. 
Gignillat, Mr. Francis Marion. 

For St. Andrew's. — William Scott, Thomas Bee, William 



APPENDIX 805 

Cattell, Esqs., Colonel Thomas Fuller, Captain Benjamin 
Stone, Isaac Rivers, Esq. 

For St. G-eorges, Dorchester. — David Oliphant, Benja- 
min Waring-, William Sanders, John Mathewes, Jr., Esqs., 
Mr. Richard Waring, Mr. Richard Walter. 

For St. James's, Goose Creek. — Thomas Smitli, Sr., Esq., 
Colonel Benjamin Singleton, John Parker, Benjamin 
Smith, John Izard, John Wright, Esqs. 

For St. Thomas" s and St. Dennis's. — James Aiken, Isaac 
Harleston, John Huger, John Moore, William Parker, John 
Syme, Esqs. 

For St. Pauls. — Thomas Ferguson, Benjamin Elliot, 
George Haig, Charles Elliot, Robert Williams, Robert 
Ladson, Esqs. 

For St. Bartholometv's. — Hon. Rawlins Lowndes, Colonel 
James Parsons, William Skirving, Esq., Philip Smith, Esq., 
James Skirving, Esq., Philip Smith, Esq., James Skirving, 
Jr., Esq., Mr. Joseph Hyrne. 

For St. Helena. — Mr. Thomas Rutledge, Mr. John 
Barnwell, Jr., Mr. Daniel Hey ward, Jr., Captain John 
Joyner, Mr. Daniel de Saussure, Colonel William Moultrie. 

For St. James's, Santee. — Colonel Daniel Horry, Paul 
Douxsaint, Esq., Thomas Horry, Edward Jermain, Thomas 
Lynch, Jr., Capers Boone, Esqs. 

For Prince George's, Win/jah. — Thomas Lynch, Elias 
Horry, Jr., Benjamin Huger, Joseph AUston, Benjamin 
Young, Esqs., Mr. Paul Trapier, Jr. 

For Prince Frederick's. — Theo. Gaillard, Thos. Porte, 
Esqs., Captain Adam McDonald, Mr. Anthony White, 
Mr Samuel Richbourg, Mr. Benjamin Screven. 

For St. John''s, Colleton. — William Gibbes, Charles C. 
Piiu'kiiey, Tliomas Fvance, Esqs., Mr. Thomas Legare, Jr., 
Captain Tlwnuas Tucker, Mr. lieiijamin Jenkins. 

For Si. Peters, Purrijslmrg. — Colonel Stephen liull, 



806 APPE^DIX 

William Williamson, Esq., Cornelius Dupont, Gideon 
Dupont, Thomas Middleton, Esqs., Mr. Philotheos 
Chiffelle. 

For Prince William's. — Colonel Benjamin Garden, 
Isaac Motte, Esq., John Ward, John Bull, William Bull, 
Isaac Macpherson, Esqs. 

For St. Stephen'' s. — John Gaillard, Philip Porcher, Esq., 
Peter Sinkler, Charles Cantey, Gabriel Marion, Esqs., 
Mr. James Sinkler. 

Fro7n St. Mark's., viz. Ninety-six District. — Colonel John 
Savage, Colonel James Mayson, Major And. Williamson, 
Le Roy Hammond, Esq., Patrick Calhoun, John Lewis 
Gervais, Edward Rutledge, John Purves, Richard Rapeley, 
Mr. Francis Salvador. 

For the District between Broad and Saluda Rivers. — 
Major John Caldwell, John Colcock, Rowland Rugely, 
Esq., Jonathan Downes, Esq., Mr. John Satterthwaite, 
Mr. James Williams, Mr. John Williams, Mr. John 
McNess, Mr. Charles King, Mr. George Ross. 

For the District hetiveen Broad and Oataivba Rivers. — 
Hon. Henry Middleton, John Chesnut, Esq., Robert 
Goodwin, John Winn, Henry Hunter, Esqs., Mr. Thomas 
Woodward, Mr. Thomas Taylor, Mr. John Hopkins, Mr. 
William Howell. 

For the District eastward of Wateree River. — Colonel 
Richard Richardson, Jos. Kershaw, Mathew Singleton, 
Thomas Sumter, Aaron Locock, William Richardson, 
Robert Patton, Esqs., Mr. Robert Carter, Mr. William 
Wilson, Mr. Ely Kershaw. 

For Saxa- Qotha District. — Hon. William Henry Dray- 
ton, Hon. Barnard Elliot, Benjamin P\arrar, Esq., William 
Arthur, Jonas Beard, William Tucker, Es^qs. 

For the Parish of St. Matthew. — Colonel Tacitus Gail- 
lard, Colonel William Thomson, Rev. Mr. Paul Tur- 



APPENDIX 807 

quand, Mr. John Caldwell, Mr. George King, Mr. Simon 
Berwick. 

For St. David's. — Hon. G. G. Powell, Claudius Pegnes, 
Esq., H. W. Harrington, Alex. Mcintosh, Samuel Wise, 
Esqs., Colonel George Pawley. 



VI 



ESTIjMATES of population of south CAROLINA UNDER 
THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



Gov. Robt. Johnson's Coll. Hist. Soc. 
So. Ca., vol. II, 239. 

Rep. Board of Trade, Col. Records 
No. Ca., vol. II, 418. 

Drayton's Vieio of So. Ca, 193. 

Ihicl. 

Gov. Glen's CarrolVs Coll., vol. II, 
261 ; Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. 
II, 266. 

Drayton's Vieio of So. Ca., 193. 

Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. 1, 110. 

Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 71. 

Gov. Glen's CarrolVs Coll., vol. II, 
218. 

Mills's Stati.^tics, 177. 

Ibid. 

Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 
292; Drayton's Vieto of So. Ca., 
193. 

Lieut. Gov. Bull to Board of Trade, 
December 6, 1769. 

Report Historical Cora. Charleston 
Library, 1835, apparently on au- 
thority of Well's Ri'c/istcr for 1774. 

Henry Laurens to French Minister. 

Dr. Milligan's Revue, chapter on Co- 
lonial History of Caroliuas, 67. 



1719 


Whites 
6,400 


Neoro 
Slaves 


Total 


1721 


9,000 


12,000 


21,000 


1721 
1723 
1724 


14,000 
14,000 
14,000 


18,000 
32,000 


32,000 
46,000 


1734 
1735 
1739 
1749 


7,333 
25,000 


22,000 
40,000 
40,000 
39,000 


29,-333 
64,000 


1753 
1763 
1765 


30,000 
35,000 
40,000 


70,000 
90,000 


105,000 
130,000 


1769 


45,000 


80,000 


125,000 


1773 


65,000 


110,000 


175,000 


1775 
1775 


60,000 
70,000 


80,000 
104,000 


140,000 
174,000 



INDEX 



Abbeville, county, mentioned, 294, 
31(i; settlement in, of Germans, o67, 
o()8 ; of Frencli Protestants, 368, 15(31) ; 
name of, by Jean de la Howe, 370. 

Abercrombie, General, mentioned, 
3'^;). 

Abercrombie, John, member of As- 
sembly, distril)utes money of Parlia- 
ment to sufferers by great fire in 
Charlestown, 240. 

Acadians, sent to Charlestown, their 
cold reception, provided for, 325, 
32(i, 327, 328. 

Adair, James, Indian trader and 
author, 2!)7 ; criticises Governor 
Glen's course, 309. 

Adams, Robert, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 4S(). 

Additional Instruction, message of 
Lieutenant Governor Bull informing 
House of Commons of, G87 ; action 
of Commons thereon, G88, 689, G92 ; 
mentioned, 729, 730; displeasure of 
Commons upon announcement by 
Lieutenant Governor that he had no 
instructions in regard to, 778. 

Adjournment, distinction between, 
aiul ]>rorni;atioii, 28, 29. 

Advertisements Relating to Educa- 
tion, I'.IO, 491. 

Agents of Colony, instructions to, 39, 
40. 

Agriculture, 26."), 266, 267, 268, 269, 
.■'.sii, ;!S7, 3SS, ;'„s'.t. 

Air, James, doctor of medicine, 420. 

Albemarle, sctlloment at, 3. 

Alexander, Alexander, one of the Lib- 
crly Tree p:irty, "191. 

Alexander, Rev. Joseph, Presbyte- 
v\i>\\ iniiiislcr and teacher, 4."i4. 

Allein, Richard, Chief Justice, men- 
tioned, 6 ; Committee of Correspon- 



dence with agent of colony , 38 ; again 
Chief Justice, 83; releases Landgrave 
Smith on bail. Ibid. ; attempted ar- 
rest of, by Assembly, 87 ; mentioned, 
107, 459, 4(;0, 462, 463-473. 

Allen, Andrew, Committee of Corre- 
spouilenee with agent of colony, 38. 

Allen, Eleazar, memorializes Com- 
missioner of Trade against incorpo- 
ration of Charlestown, 43; men- 
tioned, 62. 

Allen, William, subscriber to Ludlam 
scliool fund, 486. 

All Saints' Parish, established, 1.38. 

Allston, Joseph, member of Com- 
mons, 610. 

Allyne, John, petitions King on Bos- 
ton Port Bill, 733. 

Altamaha, fort on, established by 
Colonel Barnwell, 35 ; gives um- 
brage to Governor of St. Augustine, 
74 ; burnt, 76, 77 ; first southern 
boundary of Georgia, 115; town- 
ship on, 121. 

Amelia Island, Spaniards land on and 
C(uumit hostilities, 189. 

Amelia Township, 122, 1.38; men- 
tioned, 299. 

Amherst. General, successful expedi- 
tion of, against the French, 329; 
sends force to South Carolina to act 
again.st Cherokee, 346, 3.50. 

Amyand, Mr., Clerk of Assembly, 
death of, ISO. 

Anabaptists, Church of, report of 
(Commissary Bull in regard to, 4.35, 

m\. 

Ancrum, William, merchant on Pee 

Deo, 40!), 
Anderson County, mentioned. 294, .347. 
Anderson, Mr., lectures on natural 

philosophy, 492, 493. 



809 



810 



INDEX 



Andros, Sir Edmund, lueutioued, 20, 

-"-'. 'j:'., 71. 
Anson, Lord George, stationed on 

Carolina coast, itoi. 
Ansonboro, tradition in regard to, 

Anstruther, General, announced as 
Governor of South Carolina, 178. 

Anti-rescinders of Massachusetts, 
()02 ; their action celebrated in 
Charlestown, (iOi, (i05. 

Appropriation Law, 109. 

Appropriations, 273. 

Archdale, John, mentioned, 4, 

Area of South Carolina, 115, 116. 

Arms, seizure of, 787. 

Arnold, Samuel, merchant of Loudon, 

8.T. 

Ashby V. White, case of, quoted, 156. 

Ashe, Cato, on general committee of 
Non-importation Association, 651. 

Assistant Judges, appointment of, 
460; William H. Drayton, letter in 
regard to character of, 470. 

Association. See Non-importation. 

Atkin, Hon. Edmund, on committee 
to report on Oglethorpe's expedition 
to St. Augustine, 1119 n. 

AttakullakuUa, Indian Chief, his 
character, conference with Governor 
Glen, 305 ; Governor Glen invites to 
another conference, 309 ; mentioned, 
323; Governor Lyttleton sends for, 
336 ; Governor Lyttleton's address 
to, .336, 3.37 ; treaty with Governor 
Lyttleton, 338, 339 ; mentioned, 341 ; 
rescires Captain Stuart, 347, .348, 1349 ; 
sues for peace, treaty with Lieuten- 
ant Governor Bull, .351, 352 ; dances 
before His Excellency the Governor, 
.592, 593. 

Attorney General, emoluments of, 
97. 

Anns, John, merchant of London, 85. 

Austin, Captain Robert, warden of 

St. Philii/s Church. 100. 
Azillia, The Margraviate of, men- 

tionc.l, ll.".. 
Bacot, Peter, on general committee 

niin-iniportation agreement, 651. 
Bagby, James, .subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486. 



Baker, Mrs. Sarah, her instruction of 
negroes, 50. 

Baltimore, Lord, overthrow of Pro- 
prietary government of, mentioned, 
18. 

Baptist Church in Charlestown, 456. 

Barbadian Statutes in Regard to 
Slaves, followed, 47. 

Barlow, J., one of the Liberty Tree 
party, 591. 

Barnwell, Colonel John, mentioned, 
t) ; attends Bc)ard of Trade, urges 
action in regard to South Carolina, 
is consulted as to instructions for 
Royal Governor, 16, 17, 19, 25, .32; 
returns with Governor Nicholson, 
commander of southern forces, es- 
tablishes fort on the Altamaha, 35; 
Committee of Correspondence with 
agent of colony, 38; mentioned, 53, 
74 ; death of, 77. 

Barnwell, Nathaniel, volunteer aid 
to General Oglethorpe, mentioned, 
20;!-2I3, 223. 

Baron, Alexander, one of the founders 
of Charlestown Lilirary, 510. 

Barre, Colonel, mentioned, 479; speech 
of, question in regard, 579, 5S0. 

Bassett, Rev. Nathan, minister Inde- 
pendent or Congregationalist church, 
441,442. 

Battery, Charleston, begun by Will- 
iam iU'i-ard de Brahm, 282, 283. 

Beale, Othniel, adventure of, (il; com- 
mands militia and member of Coun- 
cil, Ibid. ; on committee to examine 
journals as to riglit of Council to 
amend money bills, 175 ; contributes 
to .school for negroes, 246; one of 
committee of Council to reply to 
remonstrance of Commons, 288; 
member of Council, resents appro- 
priation to support of Wilkes, 683; 
President of Council, sends message 
to Commons in regard to funds ad- 
vanced to Wilkes"s support, ()84. 
Beaufain, Hector Beranger de, col- 
lector of his ISlajesty's customs, 5;U; 
his liappy relations with the colo- 
nists, ,548, .549. 
Beaufain, The Ship, favorite packet, 

1 537. 



INDEX 



811 



Beaufort, precinct at, 44; free school 
at, 4ii; military district, 139; cir- 
cuit cstablislied at, ti4;>. 
Bedford, Duke of. Governor Glen's 
li'tturs to, -255, -HM, 257, 258, 25!), 2(J0, 
2G1. 
Bee, Thomas, accompanies Mr. Gads- 
deu to take State oath, 357 ; men- 
tioned, 373; attorney at law, 475, 481 ; 
action in regard to Stamp act, 573 ; 
supports general committee in case 
of the landing of certain horses, 776 ; 
reports from committee on seizure 
of arms, 787, 788; member of Coun- 
cil of Safety, 793. 
Bell, Jacob, merchant of London, 85. 
Bell, John, merchant of Loudon, 85. 
Bell, Thomas, petitions General As- 
sembly for minister and schools for 
upper country, 501 ; again petitions 
General Assembly upon the wants 
of the upper country, (140. 
Bellinger. See Bettinger, William. 
Bellot, Jean. French emigrant, 370. 
Beraud, Captain Mathew, French 

emigrant, killcil at Savannah, ;'>70. 
Bernard, Governor Francis, of Jlas- 
sachusetts, mentioned, 602, 607. 
See Massachusetts. 
Berresford, Bichard, agent of prov- 
ince, attends Board of Trade, urges 
action in regard to South Carolina, 
16 ; Committee of Correspondence 
with agent of colony, 38 ; his legacy 
for free school, Berresford Bounty, 
()7, 4S4. 
Berresford. Kichard, barrister, 475. 
Berwick, Simon, on the general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
651. 
Bethesda Orphan House, Whitetield 

founds, 248. 
Bettinger, William (Bellinger?), 

nienibcr of grand jury, 65 7i. 
Bill of Rights Association, 663. 
Billy Greg. The Snow, mentioned, 

Blair, Rev. Dr., Commissary of Bishop 
of London, for Virginia, mentioned. 
22. 

Blake, Daniel, member of Co\incil, 
supports Stamp act, 561 ; member 



of Council resents appropriation to 
support of Wilkes, ()83; mentioned, 
711, 712, 71.3, 714, 715. 
Blake, Joseph, member of Assembly, 
distributes money of Parliament to 
sufferers by great fire in Charles- 
town, 240 ; tru,stee of free school, 4.S7. 
Blake, William, subscriber to Ludlam 

school fund, 486. 
Blake, William, petitions King upon 

Boston Port Bijl 733. 
Blakeway, William, Secretary, men- 
tioned, 6 ; Committee of Correspond- 
ence with agent of colony, 38; 
mentioned as a lawyer, 473. 
Blamyer, Ensign, in Oglethorpe's ex- 
pedition to St. Augustine, 203. 
Blandford, man-of-war, 189. 
Board of Trade and Plantations, en- 
courage opposition to Proprietors, 
1 ; no legislation allowed without 
consent of, 92, 93. 
Bolzius, Rev. John, visits and minis- 
ters in Chavle.stovvn, 445, 446. 
Bonneau, Anthony, member grand 

jury, (>."i /(. 
Bonnetheau, Jean, petitions against 

incorporation of Charlestown, 42. 
Bookless, Henry, one of the Liberty 

Tree party, 491. 
Boone, Joseph, agent of province, 
joined by Colonel Barnwell, attends 
Board of Trade, urges action in re- 
gard to South Carolina, 16 ; con- 
sulted in regard to affairs, 19, 25, 32 ; 
mentioned, 353. 
Boone. Thomas, appointed Governor, 
34.") ; sketch of, ;d53 ; arrives in 
Charlestown and assumes govern- 
ment, 354; his controversy with 
Commons, 355, 3.56, 357, ^358, 359, 
360, ;!()1, 3()2, 363, ;564; leaves for 
England, 365, 366; arrives in Eng- 
land and addresses Board of Trade, 
and is censured, 371; mentioned, 
512, r,-Mi, rA\-r,s7. 
Boscanon, Admiral, successful expe- 
dition of, against the French, 329. 
Boston, South Carolina's contribution 

to, during Port Bill, 743, 744. 
Boston Port Bill, Lord North an- 
nounces, 732 ; Americans in Eng- 



812 



INDEX 



land petition the King in regard to, 
733; action of people of Charles 
town in regard to, 733, Provincial 
Congress called npon and action 
thereon, 734, 735, 736, 737, 739, 740, 
741, 742. 

Bouchillon, Joseph, French emigrant, 
370. 

Boundary between North and South 
Carolina, 110, 113. 

Boupition, French emigrant, 370. 

Bowles, John, murder of, 595. 

Bowley, Daniel, petitions King upon 
Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Boylston, John, petitions King upon 
Boston Port Bill, 73.3. 

Eraddock's Defeat, its influence in 
peopling South Carolina, 312, 329. 

Brailsford, Morton, one of the found- 
ers of Charlestown Lihrary, 510. 

Brailsford's Plantation, Colonel 
Montgomery marches from, 346. 

Brattons, none in Provincial Congress, 
762. 

Bray, Eev. Dr., Bishop of London's 
Commissary for Maryland, men- 
tioned, 22. 

Bremar, John, attorney at law, 481. 

Breton, Cape, tlie capture of, 329. 

Brewton, Colonel Michael or Miles, 
powder receiver, 38. 

Brewton, Miles, Son of above, on com- 
mittee to report on Oglethorpe's ex- 
pedition to St. Augustine, 199 ; a 
successful merchant, 400, 406, 410; 
mentioned, 4.57 ; contributor to col- 
lege at Philadelphia, 500 ; entertains 
Josiah Quincy at his mansion, de- 
scription ol, by Quincy, 705 ; pro- 
posed but defeated for General 
Congress, 741 ; member of Council 
of Safety, 793. 

Brisbane, Kobert, one of the founders 
of Charlestown Library Society, 510. 

British Troops, arrival and reception 
of, :i4(;, :".no. See Quartering Troops, 

Bromfield, Thomas, petitions King 

ujjon Boston Port Bill, 733. 
Broughton, Andrew, merchant of 

London, <S5. 
Broughton, Thomas, Governor John- 
son brings commission of Lieutenant 



Governor to, 107; succeeds to fid- 
ministration of government, 168; 
his character, 109; controversy be- 
tween Commons and himself and 
Council over money bills, 1()9, 170, 
171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176 ; his death, 
176, 177 ; mentioned, 712. 

Broughton's Battery, 282. 

Brown, James, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 5it0. 

Brown, John, Comptroller, 38. 

Brown, Kobert, subscriber to Lud- 
1am school fund, 486. 

Brown University, Rhode Island, con- 
tributions of Carolinians in support 
of, .500. 

Bryan, Hugh, romantic story of, 2.38 ; 
Whitefield's ascendancy over. Ibid. ; 
communication in Gazette by, 238, 
aW; his religious fanaticism and 
delusion, 240,^241, 242; mentioned, 
452 ; takes Mr. Hutson as tutor for 
his children, 451, 452. 

Bryan, Jonathan, Lieutenant of gen- 
tleman volunteers in Oglethorpe's 
expedition, exploit of, 208, 209 ; men- 
tioned as supporting non-importa- 
tion in Georgia, 674. 

Bryan, Joseph, assists in settling Sa- 
vannah, 165. 

Buckman, Barn., on general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
(551. 

Bugnion, or Du Bugnion, Eev. Joseph, 
comes with Swiss colonists, 126; 
receives Episcopal ordination, 126, 
445. 

Bull, Charles, barrister, 475. 

Bull, Stephen, subscriber to Ludlam's 
school fund, 486 ; mentioned, 557. 

Bull, William, Commissioner of In- 
dian Trade, 38; mentioned as mem- 
ber of Council, 65, 107, 153; assi.sts 
Oglethorpe in selecting site of Sa- 
vannah, 164 ; assists in settling same, 
164, 1()5 ; succeeds to administration 
of government as President of Coun- 
cil, 17(), 177; announced as Lieuten- 
ant Governor, 178, 179; escapes 
negro insurgents, 185 ; communicates 
to Commons Oglethorpe's appeal for 
assistance in invasion of Florida, 



INDEX 



813 



191 ; proclaims day of fasting and 
humiliation, 198; meutioiied, 250, 
25li, 255 ; one of Committee of 
Council to reply to remonstrance of 
Commons, 288; death of, 2'J2, 293; 
mentioned, 4()4, 712, TiH). 
Bull, William (2d), mentioned as 
Speaker of Commons, 177, 178; an 
ofiicer in Oj^lethorpe's expedition, 
215 ; appointed Lieutenant Governor, 
335; advises against Governor Lyt- 
tleton's expedition against Chero- 
kees. Ibid. ; marches with Governor 
as brigadier general, 335; assumes 
administration of government upon 
departure of Governor Lyttletou, 
343; applies to North Carolina and 
Virginia for assistance, 346 ; as- 
sumes administration of govern- 



/ ment for second time, 371 ; report 
as to number of negroes, 378; the 
first native Carolinian to obtain a 
degree in medicine, 417; mentioned, 
443; message urging the founding 
of a college, 49li, 497, 498 ; contrib- 
utes to support of college in Phila- 
delphia, 500; supports Stamp act, 
557; proceeds to enforce it, 5(il ; re- 
fuses to remove Dougal Campbell 
Clark at request of Commons, 575; 
gives entertainment on repeal of 
Stamp act, 557 ; in the absence of 
Governor Montagu prorogues As- 
sembly, <)07 ; assumes administration 
of government for third time, 019; 
sends message to Commons in regard 
to quartering of troops, ()20; pro- 
rogues Assembly, (i22 ; reports to 
government funds api)ropriated by 
Commons for support of Wilkes, G()3, 
(i<>4; reports the breaking up of the 
Non-importation Association, 682, 
683; prorogues Assembly, 686; con- 
tinues to do so, ()87 ; upon meeting 
sends on messages informing House 
of an " Additional Instru(!tion," (187, 
691, <i92 ; administration devolves 
upon for fifth tinu", 708 ; desire of 
province that he should receive the 
full appointment. Ibid. ; his con- 
ciliatory conduct, 709; mentioned, 
710, 712 ; Council addresses on 



finance, 713; replies thereto, 714, 
715 ; advises with Council upon the 
action of the people in regard to tea, 
727 ; prorogues Assembly, 728 ; Com- 
mons address, 729, 730 ; declines to 
receive certificates of indebtedness 
issued by Commons, 730 ; receives 
Commons, informs them he has 
nothing to communicate for the 
Crown, 778; reply of Commons 
thereto, 778 ; sends message to Com- 
mons on seizure of arms, 787, 788; 
is relieved by arrival of Lord "Wil- 
liam Campbell, 794 ; end of his 
career, 794; mentioned, 796. 

Bull, William, Jr., joins revolution- 
ists, 557 ; present at seizure of arms. 
787. 

Bull, William Treadwell, Commissary 
of the Bishop of London, 434; his 
account of the church, 434, 435, 436, 
437; leaves province, 439. 

Bullman, Rev. John, preaches a ser- 
mou which occasions great commo- 
tion. 752, 753, 754, 755. 

Bullocks Creek School of Mr. Hum- 
phries, at, 4.")4. 

Burdett, Sir Francis, case of, quoted, 
163. 

Burke, Edmund, mentioned, 479 ; 
moves in Parliament resolutions of 
repeal of Revenue acts, 784. 

Burnham, Dr. Charles, meutioned, 
413. 

Burns, John, member of Council, 
resents appropriation of funds to 
Wilkes's support, 683, 711. 

Burrington, George, Governor of 
North Carolina, makes question as 
to the liouiidary between North and 
South Carolina', 110, 113. 

Burroughs, William, one of the 
founders of Charlestown Library, 
510. ■ 

Burroughs, William Ward, barrister, 
47.'., 4.S1. 

Buston, Edward, petitions King upon 
ISdSloii Port iJill, 733. 

Cainhroy, Presbyterian Church at, 441. 

Caldwell, John, father of Miss Cald- 
well, who marries Patrick Calhoun, 
316. 



814 



INDEX 



Caldwell, Miss, marries Patrick Cal- 
houn, and becomes mother of John 
C. Callioun, mentioned, 316. 

Calhoun, massacre of family of, 342. 

Calhoun, Catherine, among the slain 
in Indian inassacre, curious stone 
marking the spot, 343. 

Calhoun, Patrick, mentioned, 296; 
settles in the Waxhaws, 316 ; men- 
tioned in account of massacre of 
family, 342; petitions General As- 
sembly for ministers and schools for 
upper country, 501 ; again petitions 
General Assembly upon wants of 
upper country, 640; appears in Gen- 
eral Assembly, 659. 

Calhoun, Rebecca, mentioned, 316. 

Calhoun, William, mentioned, 296; 
daughters of, carried into captivity 
by Indians, 342; petitions General 
Assembly for ministers and schools 
for upper country, 501 ; again peti- 
tions General Assembly upon the 
wants of the upper country, 640. 

Calvert, John, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Cam, William, merchant of London, 
85. 

Camden, Lord, opposes Stamp act, 
557, 584. 

Camden, military district, 139 ; town 
of, founded by Joseph Kershaw, 
408 ; circuit court established at, 
643. 

Cameron, Alexander, Commissary of 
the Cherokees, brings Indian chiefs 
to pay their respects to Governor 
Montagu, .593. 

Campbell, Dougal, Clerk of Courts, 
refuses to enter order for want of 
stamps, 574; Commons request his 
removal, 575, 576 ; mentioned, 587 ; 
claims compensation for loss of fees 
upon establishment of circuit courts, 
and is allowed some, 625, 632. 

Campbell, Lord William, mentioned, 
5.?(); appointed Governor, 709; ar- 
rives, 794. 

Cannon, Daniel, mentioned, 457 ; one 
of the Liberty Tree party, 591 ; on 
general committee Non-importation 
Association, 651. 



Cantey, Charles, member of Com- 
mons, 610. 
Cantey, Zack, successful merchant 
established at Pine Tree near Cam- 
den, 409. 

Cape Fear, settlement at, 3. 

Caravans, 299. 

Carolina Packet, Captain Robinson 
threats of riot because of stamps 
supposed to be on board, 570. 

Carrington, , lawyer, mentioned, 

473. 

Carter, Robert, member of Provincial 
Congress, 762. 

Carteret, Lord John, co-tenant with 
the King, 5 ; opposes establishment 
of Royal government, 17 ; refuses to 
join in surrender of charter, 39; 
instructions of agents communicated 
to, 40 ; dual position of, 70 ; Governor 
Robert Johnson's letter to, 70, 71. 

Catawba Indians, mentioned, 295. 

Catholic Society, organized, and 
school of, 504. 

Cattell, Peter, member of grand jury, 
()5 u. 

Cattell, William, enters race horses 
New Market course, 593; member 
of Commons, waits on Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, 745. 

Cattle, great increase of, 396. 

Caw, Thomas, doctor of medicine, 
420; quarantine officer, 429. 

Cawood, John, member of grand jury, 
65 n. 

Chalmers, Dr. Lionel, sketch of, 415. 

Chamber of Commerce, adopts fiscal 
measure of Commons to provide cur- 
rency, 731. 

Chancery, Court of, organized, 36, 43. 

Chanler, Isaac, doctor of medicine, 
420. 

Chanler, Rev. Isaac, takes part in 
controversy between Commissary 
Garden and Mr. Whitefield, 236. 

Channing, John, subscriber to Lud- 
lani scliool fund, 48(i. 

Charitable Societies, 530, 531. 

Charles City and Port, incorporation 
of, petition for, 40; act for, 41; 
petition against, 42; act of incor- 
poration repealed, 43. 



INDEX 



815 



Charlestown Library Society, found- 
ed, "iKi, ."ill, ')V2 ; seuuiul siibsL-ription 
lihriiry in America, 539. 

Charlestown, mentioned, .3; incor- 
poration of, 40, 41, 42, 43 ; free school 
at, 4tj; military district, 13it; popu- 
lation of, 144; great fire, 23<J, 240, 
241; description of, 395, 396, 397, 
398. 

Charlestown Troop of Horse, accom- 
panies Governor Ijytlleton upon ex- 
pedition ai;ainst Cherokces, 335; 
mentioned, 340. 

Chatham, Lord, opposes Stamp act, 
557 ; reappears in Parliament witli 
new proposals for conciliation, 748. 
See Pitt, William. 

Cheraw, district of, 139. 

Cheraws, military district, 139; cir- 
cuit- established at, CA.i. 

Cherokee County, North Carolina, 
mentionetl, •>47. 

Cherokee Indians, Sir Alexander Cum- 
min!^ sent commissioner to, 102; 
Con'jxress with Sir Alexander, 103 ; 
appoints Moytoy Commander-in- 
chief of. Ibid.: six chiefs of, jjo to 
Enjjland Avith Sir Alexander, ad- 
mitted to the King's presence and 
make treaty with him, 103, 10(i; 
return with Governor JoliiLson, 107; 
Oglethorpe raises a force of, 192 ; 
mentioned, 295, 299, 300; hostilities 
with Creeks, 302, 305 ; tampered with 
by the French, 330 ; begin hostilities 
against Carolinians, 330, .331; con- 
ference with Governor Lyttleton 
arranged by Governor Ellis, 330 ; 
embassy sent, 331, 332 ; Governor 
Lyttleton's treatment of, 333, 3:>4; 
Governor Lyttleton marches against, 
335 ; treaty made with, XM], 337, 3.38 ; 
renewal of hostilities, 3.39 ; massacre 
of the Calhouns, 'M2 ; Colonel Mont- 
gomery, expedition against, 345, 
■M\, ;U7. 

Chester County, mentioned, 294, .307. 

Chestnut, John, successful merchant 
eslaljlished at Pine Tree, now Cam- 
den, 408, 409; member of Provincial 
Congress, 7<>2. 

Chickasaw Trail, 29<), .3(X). 



Chickasaws, French emissaries among, 

79. 
Chicken, Col. George, commissioner of 

Indian trade, 38; agent to watch 

Clierokecs, 79. 
Chief Justice, salary of, 97, 461 ; per- 
sons occupying position of, 4(50, 402, 

463, 4()4, 465, 466, 467, 4()8. 
Chiffelle, Rev. Henry, comer with 

Swiss colonists, receives Episcopal 

ordination, 126, 127, 445. 
Child, Mr. James, legacy for free 

school, 484. 
Choctaws, French emissaries among, 

79. 
Chote, Indian Town, 332. 
Chote, Prince or King of, 333. 
Christ Church Parish, Commissary 

Bull's report in regard, 436. 
Church of England, established, 30. 
Circuit Courts, establishment of, 642. 
Clarke, Rev. Richard, supervises 

sclio(d fur negroes, 247. 
Cleland, John, one of Committee of 

Council to rejily to remonstrance of 

Connuons, 28S; mentioned, 712. 
Clerk of Crown and Pleas, salary of, 

97. 
Clergy of the Church of Bhgland in 

South Carolina, 434, 435, 437, 4.38, 

439, 440 ; Presbyterian, 441, 442, 443 ; 

Congregational, 443, 444; Lutheran, 

445, 44(), 447 ; character of, 449, 450. 

See also 451, 452, 453, 4.54, 455, 456. 
Coachman, Benjamin, sub,scriber to 

Ludhim school fund, 486. 
Coachman, James, subscriber to Lud- 

lani schiiol fund, 486. 
Cobebel, Stephen, merchant of Lon- 
don, 85. 
Cochran, Lieutenant Colonel, comes 

out with Oglethorpe's regiment, 189; 

transferred, 227. 
Coffee, importation of, 61. 
Coin, a commodity, 12 ; importation 

of, 61 : (vumtcrfeit of, 715. 
Colchester, The Man-of-war, 195. 
Colcock, John, attorney at law, 481; 

rcturupd to Provincial Congress 

from Broad and Saluda, 761. 
Coleman. Thomas, one of the Liberty 

Tree party, 391. 



816 



INDEX 



College, proposed, 49G ; Lieutenant 
Govurnur Bull's message in regard 
to, 4',)(), 497, 4!)S. 

College of Philadelphia, Carolinians 
contriljute to, 500. 

Colleton County, Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to churches in, 4o6, 
4:^7. 

Colleton, Major Charles, in South 
Carolina regiment in Oglethorpe's 
expedition, 19(5, 197, 206. 

Colleton, Sir John, elected raemher of 
Commons, Governor Boone's con- 
duct to, 364, ot)5 ; member of Coun- 
cil, resents appropriation of funds 
to Wilkes's support, 683 ; mentioned, 
712. 

Commerce, increase of, 126, 143, 389, 
3;K), 391, 372, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397; 
Governor Glen's account of, 264, 
265, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271. 

Commodities as Currency. See Cur- 
rency. 

Commons' House of Assembly, Gov- 
ernoi 's instructions iu regard to, 
28, 29, 30; arbitrary exercise of 
power by, 62, 63, 87 ; constitution 
and character of, 95, 96, 97 ; contest 
of, with Chief Justice and lawyers 
over commitments by, 148, 149, 1.50, 
151, 152, 1.53, 1,54, 155, 156, 157, 158, 
159, 160, 161, 162, 163; controversy 
of, with Council as to right of latter 
to amend tax bills, 169, 170, 171, 172, 
173, 174, 175, 176, 181, 182; renewal 
of controversy, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 
286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292; con- 
troversy with Governor Boone, 355, 
356, 357, 358, :&.), 360, .361, 362, 363, 
364 ; resolutions of, in regard to 
Stamp act, 561, 562, 563; votes of, 
in regard to Stamp act published, 
576 ; answers Governor's speech, 615, 
616, 617, »il8, 619, 620; appropriates 
funds to the support of Wilkes, con- 
troversy with Council over same, 
660, 661, 662, ()()3, 685, 686, 687; 
receives message from l.ientenant 
Governor Bull informing House of 
an Additional Instruction, Ibid.; 
renewal of conlroversy with Council 
over ai)propriation for Wilkes, (i88. 



689, 690, 691; commits Treasurers 
for refusing to advance funds on 
order of House alone, 694 ; dissolved 
694, 695; new election, same persons 
reelected, 695; dissolved and new 
writs of election issued, made re- 
turnable at Beaufort, 695, 696; full 
House assembles there, 697 ; Peter 
Manigault reelected Speaker, 698; 
Governor delays opening, 698 ; orders 
Assembly back to Charlestown, 
698,699; Peter Manigault reelected 
but resigns, and Rawlins Lowndes 
elected Speaker, 699; Committee on 
Grievances of, report upon Gover- 
nor's conduct, 700; action of House 
upon, 701 ; House dissolved, 702 ; new 
Houses elected and dissolved, 704; 
instructs Mr. Garth to complain 
to the King of Council, 722, 723; 
fiscal measure to avoid inconven- 
ience of the Additional Instruction 
and its success, 728, 729, 7;30, 731; 
meets at unusual hours and hurries 
through and ijrovides for aKj)enses 
of delegates to General Congress, 
745, 746 ; and is prorogued, 746, 
747; meets the Lieutenant Governor 
who addresses them, reply thereto, 
778 ; report to, of delegates to Con- 
tinental Congress, 778, 779; pre- 
scribes powers of delegates, 779; 
passes act to prevent counterfeiting 
and sends it to Council without 
complying with "Additional In- 
struction," 779, 780, 781; C<miraons 
attend St. Philip's Church on day 
of fasting, humiliation, and prayer 
appointed by Provincial Congress, 
782 ; action of, on message of Lieu- 
tenant Governor Bull upon seizure 
of arms, 787, 788 ; authorizes dele- 
gates to General Congress to engage 
for contributions to general cause, 
788, 789; issues certificates for pay- 
ment of public debts, and is pro- 
rogued, 791. 

Congaree River, mentioned, trail, 
299. 

Congaree's garrison post, 300. 

Congregational or Independent 
Church, Cbarlestown, 442, 444; on 



INDEX 



817 



Edisto, James's Island, and Caiuhoy, 
444, 455. 

Congress, First General, of all the 
colonies called, 5()0; delegates ap- 
pointed to, 5(i;>; questions discussed 
and resolutions adopted by, 576, 577, 
578; delegates appointed to second 
General Congress, 740, 741 ; report 
of delegates to, upon action of, 7()2, 
763, 7(i4, 765, 7(57, 768, 769 ; delegates 
reelected to, 770; their instructions, 
770. 771. 

Congress, Provincial, called to take 
action in regard to the Boston Port 
Bill, 733, 734 ; George Gabriel Powell 
presides over, 734 ; proceedings of, 
735, 736, 737, 738, 739, 740, 741 ; new 
Congress called, 757, 758, 759; mem- 
bers elected, 761, 762 ; Charles Pinck- 
ney chosen President, Peter Timothy 
Secretary, Hi'2; delegates to Conti- 
nental Congress report to, 763 ; dis- 
cussion and action of, thereon, 761, 
765, 766, 767, 768, 769; General Com- 
mittee of, formed, 770 ; reelects same 
delegates to next Continental Con- 
gress, 770; prescribes their power, 
770, 771 ; waits on and addresses the 
Lieutenant Governor, 771, 7T2; ad- 
journs, 773; appoints secret com- 
mittee, 786 ; reconvened by General 
Committee, 789; meets, 791, 792; 
appoints a Committee of Ways and 
Means, and forms an association, 792; 
resolves to raise two regiments, 792 ; 
forms a Council of Safety, 792, 793 ; 
orders another general election, 793; 
prepares an address to the Lieuten- 
ant Governor, 794. 

Connecticut, Governor of, mentioned. 

Conscience. Liberty of, permitted, :30. 

Conseillere's Creek, mentioned, 2S;'.. 

Cook. James, map of South Carolina, 
11.-). 

Cook, Lieutenant Colonel, Ogle- 
thorpe's regiment, mentioned, 207, 
208, 21 ti. 217, 220. 227, 228. 

Cooper. John, one of the founders of 
( liMrlestown Library, 510. 

Cooper, Dr. Thomas, committed by 
Commons, 152; sues out habeas cor- 
VOL. II — 3g 



pits, Ibid. ; struggle over, 152, 153, 
154, 155, 156, 157, 158; released, 
1,59. 

Copley, Sir Lionel, Governor of Mary- 
land, mentioned, 18, 21. 

Coram, John, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, 651. 

Cordes, Anthony, M.D., 413. 

Cosslett, Charles Mathew, assistant 
judge, 750. 

Cotton, importation of, 61. 

Cotton, Eev. John, minister of Con- 
gregational or Independent Church, 
death of, 441. 

CouUiette, Laurence, Clerk of Com- 
mon Pleas, presents petition against 
President Middletou, 80. 

Council, or Upper House, character 
and constitution of, 26, 27, 28, 29, 
30, 9:'., 94, 95, 96, 97; controversy 
over its right to amend tax bills, 
^69, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176; 
Governor excluded from Board of, 
182, 255 ; character of again ques- 
tioned and controversy over right 
to amend tax bill renewed, 281, 282, 
283, 28-t, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 2i)0, 
291, 292 ; action of, in regard to Stamp 
act, 561 ; controversy of, with Com- 
mons over appropriation for Wilkes, 
660, 661, (162, 663, 684, 685, 686, (;87 ; 
conduct of, approved by King, 691, 
692 ; volunteers advice to Lieutenant 
Governor Bull upon finances, 713; 
takes offence at Lieutenant Gover- 
nor's reply, 714, 715; arrests Powell, 
the printer of the Gazette, 715; pro- 
ceedings thereon in habeas corpxa^, 
71(), 717, 718, 719, 720, 721; Com- 
mons complain of, to the King, 722; 
the King replies he will not allow 
Constitution of Council as an Upper 
House to be questioned, 722, 723; 
Council passes act to prevent coun- 
terfeiting, though Commons had not 
compli(Ml with "Additional Instruc- 
tion." 7S(). 

Council of Safety, appointed; its pow- 
ers, 792. 79;;. 

Country Fever, 430, 431, 432. 

Court of Justice, County and Precinct 
Courts established, 8; Courts of 



818 



INDEX 



Chancery, 8, 43; County Courts 
established, 44; jurisdietiou of, 45; 
proceedings on, regulated, 4G ; ap- 
pointment of Chief Justices, 2()1, 
2()2 ; Court of Common Pleas and 
Court of Chancery, 400 ; struggle for 
the establishment of, in upper coun- 
try, 625, G26, ()27, 628, 629, 630, 631, 
()32, 633, (534, 635, 636, 637, 638 ; Cir- 
cuit Courts established, G42. 

Court circle, 532. 

Cow drivers, precede regular settlers, 
2<I5, 291). 

Coytomore, Ensign, young officer at 
Fort Loudon, 324 ; enticed to confer- 
ence and massacred, 341. 

Cragg, Secretary of State, mentioned, 
16. 

Craighead, Eev. Alexander, men- 
tioned, 316. 

Craven County, Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to churches in, 436. 

Crawford, William H., from the Wax- 
haws, ;U6. 

Crawford, Daniel, President Charles- 
town Library Society, 512. 

Creeks, Oglethorpe raises a force of, 
192; hostilities with Cherokees, 302, 
305. 

Croft, Childerman, mentioned, 80. 

Croft, John, member of grand jury, 
65. 

Crokatt, James, controversy over his 
claim Ijetween Council and Com- 
mons, 281, 2S2. 

Culloden, Refugee from, 137. 

Culpepper, John, arrested and tried 
in England for treason in America, 

r>rvA. 

Cumberland, Richard, Provost Mar- 
shal, obstructs establishment of Cir- 
cuit Courts; negotiations for the 
purchase of his patent, 627, 628, ()29; 
l)ai(l £5(t0iHor surrmiiler of, 630, 638. 

Gumming, Sir Alexander, sent out as 
commissioner to Clierokees, 102 ; 
proceeds to Keowee, holds Congress 
with Cherokees, Ibid. ; appoints 
Moytoy Commander-in-Chief, 103; 
takes Indian chiefs with hiiu to 
England, 103; certities treaty made, 
105. 106. 



Curling, Captain Alexander, of the 

ship Lo)tdon, arriyea with tea ; action 
of the people thereon, 725, 726, 727. 

Curling, Captain Daniel, of the ship 
Beuufaiii, 537, 681. 

Currency, confusion in, 10; commodi- 
ties as, 10, 11, 12, 13; struggle over, 
63, 64, 65, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86; 
scarcity of coin, 271 ; comparative 
value of paper bills and sterling set- 
tled by custom, 271, 272. 

Cushing, Thomas, Speaker of Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives ; 
Speaker Mauigault's letters to, 603. 

Cuthbert, John, petitions Assembly f or 
patent for agricultural implements 
invented by him, .388. 

Daindridge, Captain, Royal Navy, 
195. 

Dale, Thomas, assistant judge, 401. 

Dancing taught, 491. 

Dart, Benjamin, on committee to re- 
port on Oglethorpe's expedition to 
St. Augustine, 199. 

Dart, Benjamin, member of Com- 
mons, vote in regard to Massachu- 
setts Anti-rescinders, 610; commit- 
tee on Governor's message in regard 
to quartering of troops, 617 ; com- 
mittee to send funds for supi)ort of 
Wilkes, 603; mention, 687; treas- 
urer, committed to jail by Commons 
for refusing to advance funds on 
order of that body, 694. 

Dart, John, lawyer, mentioned, 478, 
481. 

Davenport's Delusions. See Hugh 
Bryan. 

Davie, William Richardson, men- 
tioned, :il(i, 4.54. 

Deas, David, his instruction of ne- 
groes, 50 (name misprinted in body 
of work Davis). 

Deas, John, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 4S(i. 

Deas, William Allen, barrister, 475. 

De Brahm, Walter Gerard, nuip of 
South Carolina, 115; builds fortifi- 
cations and sea wall, 282, 283. 

Debtors, acts for the relief of, 9, 10, 
11. 

Debts, acts for the recovery of, 36. 



INDEX 



819 



Declaratory Acts, 584, nm, 622. 

Deerskins, fxixniiitioii of, (10, 270. 

De la Consiliere, Benjamin, member 
(if Council, (>."). 

De la Howe, Jean, French emigraut, 
;'.7(». 

Demere, Captain, mentioned, 323, 324 ; 
commaudiug officer, Fort Loudon, 
331 ; sends Cherokee embassy to 
Governor Lyttleton, 'S.V2; his mas- 
sacre, 34(), 347, ^'>4tS. 

De Saussure, Henri, settles in Prov- 
ince, 142 ; Lieutenant Oglethorpe's 
expedition, 205. 

De Saussure, Daniel (son of above), 
successful mercluiut, established 
near Coosaliatchie, 40!). 

Deserta Arenosa, the Great Desert, 
294. 

Diaries, 535. 

Diego Plains, Florida, description of, 

2(M). 

Diego, Don Spinola, Spanish mulatto 
prisoner, Oglethorpe's expedition, 
204, 205, 20(3, 207, 210, 223. 

Dill, Joseph, one of the Liberty Tree 
part**-, 5!il ; on general committee 
Non-iniportatiou Association, 651. 

Dillon's Tavern, mentioned, 565 ; en- 
tertainment at, in honor of the 
Anti-rescinders of Massachusetts 
and of John Wilkes, (>05, 606 ; 
entertainment at, upon aimiver- 
sary of the repeal of the Stamp act, 
(;i3. 

Dingle Alexander, subscriber to Lud- 
1am .school fund, 4S6. 

Diuwiddie, Lieutenant Governor, of 
Virginia, action in regard to Indian 
trade, 302; Governor Glenn's letter 
to, upon subject, ;?03, 304. 

D'Isle, French geographer, map of, 
-.MH. 

Dobbins, Joseph, subscriber to Lud- 
1am scliool fuu<l, 4S(!. 

Dominick. Dr. Christopher, men- 
tioned, 413. 

Domjen, Samuel, lectures on electri- 
city. 4ii2. 

Dorchester, new church built at, 66; 
school al, 4S<t. 

Dougherty, Indian trader, 271, 298. 



Douxsaint, Saul, one of the founders 
of ( luulcslowu Library, 510. 

D'Oyley, Daniel, assistant judge, opens 
court atljourned by Chief Justice 
Shinner for want of stamps, 573, 
574 ; on general committee Non-im- 
portation Association, 651. 

Drake's, Captain, company disbanded, 
82. 

Drawing taught, 491. 

Drayton, Charles, doctor of medicine, 
420. 

Drayton, John, member of Council, 
supports Stamp act, 561 ; resents 
appropriation of funds to Wilkes's 
support, 683; mentioned, 711 ; con- 
sulted by Lieutenant Governor Bull, 
727. 

Drayton, John, son of William Henry, 
Author, rM). 

Drayton, Mrs. Ann, assists in settling 
Savannah, 165. 

Drayton, Stephen, member of Com- 
mons, 610. 

Drayton, William, aide-de-camp to 
Governor Lyttleton upon expedition 
against Cherokees, 335; becomes 
Chief Justice of Florida and re- 
mains loyal to the Crown, 557. 

Drayton. William Henry, mentioned 
4."')6, 4.")7, 469, 474; sent to England 
for his education, 495; mentioned, 
499; owner of race-horse, 522; his 
position in regard to the Revolution, 
5()0 ; enters race-horses New Mar- 
ket Course, 593 ; his charges to the 
grand juries allixded to, 643; his 
controversy over Non-importation 
Agreement, 651, 652, 653, 654, 6.55, 
65(i, 6,57 ; presents petition to Gen- 
eral Assembly against its contribu- 
tion to the Wilkes's fund, 6()0 ; the 
Commons refuse to receive it, 661, 
662; leaves the country in disgust, 
6()4, 667; publishes in England cor- 
respondence with Gadsden, and 
others, presented at Court ami ap- 
pointed member of Council, returns 
home and takes his seat, 710; his 
strictures upon composition of 
Board, 711, 712; enters protest on 
journal of Council, and publishes 



820 



INDEX 



same, 715 ; Council declares protest 
false and scandalous, 721 ; Lis sup- 
posed reply to same, 722 ; volunteers 
to serve on bench in place of Judge 
Murray, deceased, and is accepted, 
748 ; writes as "Freeman " upon sub- 
ject of American Rights, 748, 749; 
gives history of the court, 750; his 
course remonstrated against by 
Chief Justice, 750 ; goes on circuit 
and delivers series of famous 
charges to grand juries, 751 ; is 
superseded, 751; mentioned, 752; 
member of Provincial Congress from 
Saxe-Gotha, 7()1; supports John 
Rutledge in exception of rice from 
Non-importation Agreement, 7(J7 ; 
speech upon the landing of certain 
horses under Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 77(), 777; protests against de- 
lay in Council in passing bill to 
prevent counterfeiting, 780; Council 
requests his removal, and Lieutenant 
Governor Bull suspends him from 
Council, 781, 782; mentioned, 783; 
chairman Secret Committee, 786 ; 
present at seizure of arms, 787 ; 
member of Council of Safety, 793 ; 
mentioned, 79(). 

Dunbar, Lieutenant, attacks fort at 
Ficnlata, 1*H): in Oglethorpe's expe- 
dition, 205, 20G. 

Dungamore, Lord, brigantine, brings 
emigi'unts from north of Ireland, 
51 1;!. 

Dupont, Gideon, subscriber to Lud- 
1am scliiiol I'lind, 4S(). 

Dupre, Cornelius, subscriber to Lud- 
lani si'liodi fund, 48(5. 

Duquesne, Tort, taken from the 
Frcncli, 1529, M:iO. 

Dutartre, tragedy of the family of, 57, 
(;o. 

Duties, Governor Glen's report in re- 
gard to, 273. 

Echaw, Precinct Court at, 44 ; free 
school at, 4(1. 

Eden, Charles, Governor of North 
Canilina, refuses to recognize Colo- 
nel .Ab>or(! as Governor of Sontli 
Cai(>liii;i, 4. 

Edgefield County, mentioned, 294-307. 



Edisto, settlement at, 3; island made 
part of St. John's Parish, Colletou, 
138; mentioned, 299; Congregatiou- 
alisl Clnirch on, 444. 
Edmonds, Eev. James, minister of 
Congregationalist Cliurch, 45G; ar- 
rested and put on prison ship by 
British, 45(j. 

Education, many of the clergy of 
the Cluirch of England came out 
as schoolmasters or tutors, 449; in- 
terest of the colonists in, 482, 483, 
484, 485, 48(), 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 
492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 497, 498, 499, 
500, 501, .502, -503, 504, 505. 

Edwards, John, merchant, 407, 408; 
on general committee Non-importa- 
tion Association, 651; charged with 
violation of Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 673; is acquitted by meeting 
under Liberty Tree, 676. 

Edwards, Mrs., her instructiou of ne- 
groes, 49, .50. 

Effigies, erected, .565 ; burnt, 566 ; 
mentioned, 672. 

Election Districts, establishment of, 
7.-.7, 7.-.S, 7.5! t. 

Election Laws, act of 1722, 36, 37, 38. 

Electricity, lectures on, 492, 493, 494. 

Ellenborough, Lord, position in re- 
gard to right of Commons to com- 
mit, 162. 163. 

EUery, Thomas, lawyer, mentioned, 

47.-;. 

Ellis, Governor, of Georgia, men- 
tioned, ;)32. 

Ellis, John, iietitions king upon Bos- 
ton Port Bill, 733. 

Elliot, Barnard, member of Council, 
711, 715. 

Elliot, Benjamin, enters race-horses 
New Market Course, 593; member 
of Comnu)ns vote in regard to Mas- 
sacluisetts Anti-rescinders, 610 ;. on 
general committee Non-importation 
Association, 651 ; member of Coun- 
cil of Safety, 793. 

Elliot, Charles, member of Commons 
on general committee Non-importa- 
tion .\ssocialion, 651. 

Elliot, Samuel, enters race-horses 
New Market Course, 593. 



INDEX 



821 



Elliot, Thomas, member of grand 

jury, 'iS n. 
Elliot, William, enters race-horses 

Xow Market Course, 593. 
Ellison, Robert, founder of Mount 

Zioii Society, 502. 
Enacting Clause of Statutes, form of, 

'_'(;, '.(5. 

Engrossing, prohibited, 31. 

Evance, Thomas, member of Com- 
mons, vote in regard to Massachu- 
setts aiiti-rescinders, 610. 

Evans, George, attorney general, 45!). 

Evans, Mr., lectures on philosophy, 
4<i;i. 

Evans, Master, ship Sally George, 
HTO. 

Eveleigh, William, member of grand 
jury, t;5. 

Everleigh. Samuel, petitions against 
incorporation of Charlestown, 42, 
43. 

Exports and Imports, naval officers' 
accounts of, to be sent to England, 
31 ; estimates of, 38, 60, 61 ; men- 
tioned, 125, 126, 183, 184, 258, 2(i4, 
265, 26(), 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 378, 
379, 3S0, 389, 390, 391, 392, 394, 395, 
.396, .397. 

Faculty of Medicine, 432. 

Fairchild. Mr., vestryman, St. Pliilip's 
Cliiin-h, ini). 

Fairfield County, mentioned, 294, 307. 

Farrar, Benjamin, member of Com- 
mons, 610; member of Provincial 
Congress. 762. 

Faucheraud, C, sub.scriber to Ludlam 
schuol fiuul, 4.S(). 

Faucheraud, Gideon, subscriber to 
I^udlani school fund, 486. 

Faysoux, Peter, doctor of medicine, 
42(t. 

Fellowship Society, incorporated 1769, 
caic lit the insane and school, 487. 

Fenwicke. Edward, enters race-hor.ses 
Kew iMarket Course, .593; petitions 
King upon Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Fenwicke, Edward, Jr., petitions King 
upon Boston I'ort Bill, 7.33. 

Fenwicke, Hon. John, mentioned as 
member of Council, 107, 153 )i.\ on 
committee to report on Oglethorpe's 



expedition to St. Augustine, 199 n. ; 
addresses Carolina regiment on its 
return, 229. 

Ferguson, Thomas, mentioned, 478; 
contribution of, to College of Phila- 
delphia, 500 ; on general committee 
Non-importation Association, (wl ; 
on committee to send funds for sup- 
port of Wilkes, 663; member of 
Council of Safety, 793. 

Fewtrell, John, assistant judge, 4(J9. 

Fibbin, John, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486. 

Field, William, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Fiftoe, chief man of Keowee town, 338. 

Financial, act for relief of debtors, 9; 
financial confusion, 10, 11; fiscal 
measure adopted by Commons to 
avoid inconvenience of the Addi- 
tional Instruction and its success, 
728, 729, 730, 731, 732. 

Finisterre, Cape, rice allowed to be 
shipped south of, 109, 389. 

Fire, disastrous, in Charlestown 
(1740), 23it, 240. 

Fire Insurance Company, organized, 
.531, ,5.32, 5i>3. 

Fitch, Captain Tobias, Indian agent 
to watch Cherokees, 79. 

Flagg, George, one of the Liberty 
Tree i)arty, 591. 

Flambourgh, the man-of-war, men- 
tioned, .34, 195, 213. 

Florida, question as to boundaries 
of, 74 ; commissioners of, conference 
with President Middleton as to, 75; 
Oglethorpe's invasion of, 198; dis- 
ruption of field of operation in, 1S)9. 

Forbes, General, mentioned, 329, 330, 
.331. 

Fort Moore, Indian trail to, 299; a 
garrisoned post, :?00. 

Fort Prince George, near Keowee, 
built, ;>08; surrounded by Indians, 
341 ; Governor Bull sends relief to, 
.350. 

Fox. Charles James, mentioned, 478. 

Franklin. Benjamin, petitions King 
upon Pxistoii Port Bill, 733. 

Fredrica, Georgia, post, 190. 

Fredericksburg, township, 121. 



822 



INDEX 



Free Masons, Lodge of, entertainment 
of, 6i:'.. 

Freer, John, member of Commons, 
(ilO. 

Free Schools, established 46; acts in 
regard to, 482 : Governor Nicholson's 
instruction in regard, 4S2, 483; bis 
liberality to, 482; act founding, 482. 

French, encroachments of, from Lou- 
isiana, 78, 7!t; map of area claimed 
by, 301 ; anomalous condition of 
affairs between English and, 309; 
hostilities in America, 329, 330, 331. 

French Neutrals. See Acadians. 

French Taught, 491 . 

Friedericks, Rev. John George, pas- 
tor of 8t. Jolm's German Lutheran 
congregation, 446. 

Fullerton, John, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 590 ; on general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
<r.l. 

Furman, Rev. Richard, 456 (name 
misprinted in body of work Free- 
man). 

Gadsden, Christopher, accompanies 
(Tdvurnor Lyttleton upon expedi- 
tion against Cherokees, 3.35, 340; 
takes part in reception of Governor 
Boone, 354; Governor Boone's con- 
troversy with Commons over his 
election, 357, 358; writer in Gazette 
upon same, 360, 361 ; sketch of, 373, 
374, 375; mentioned, 457, 478; edu- 
cated in England, 495; mentioned, 
499; opposes Stamp act, 557; ap- 
pointed member of Continen|tal Con- 
gress, called by Massachusetts, 563; 
his course in that body, 576, 577 ; 
hurries back to meet General As- 
sembly, but is too late, 578; re- 
quested to sit for his picture, 584; 
mentioned, 587 ; not satisfied with 
repeal of the Stamp act, 589; ad- 
dresses party under the Liberty 
Tree, 590; nominated by mechanics 
for the Commons, and elected, ()04, 
605; committee to whom speech of 
Governor referred, 607; vote in re- 
gard to Massachusetts Anti-rescind- 
ers, 610; committee on Governor's 
message in regard to quartering 



of troops, and report from, 618; 
presides at meeting of inhabitants 
of Charlestown, which adopts Non- 
importation Agreement,()50 ; alluded 
to 652, 653 ; controversy with Mr. 
Drayton, 654, 655, 6.56, 657 ; presides 
at meeting under Liberty Tree, 6t)4; 
on committee to send funds to sup- 
port of Wilkes, 663; mentioned, 
687 ; sent to General Congress, 741 ; 
mentioned, 749, 752, 761 ; opposes 
exception of rice from Non-impor- 
tation Association, 765-767 ; moves 
to reverse action of General Commit- 
tee in case of the landing of cer- 
tain horses under Non-importation 
Agreement, 77(i : mentioned, 796. 

Gadsden, Thomas, collector of cus- 
toms, W). 

Gage, General, applies to Governor 
Montagu to quarter ti-oops, and ac- 
tion of Commons thereon, 617, 618, 
619, 620. 

Gaillard, John, barrister, 475. 

Gaillard, Tacitus, elected to Com- 
mons from two parishes ; sits for 
St. George, Dorchester; his vote in 
regard to Massachusetts Anti-re- 
scinders, 610. 

Gaillard. Theodore, barrister, 475; 
mem))er of Commons, 610. 

Garden, Rev. Alexander, spiritual 
counsel to the condemned Dutartres, 
57, 60; rector of St. Philip's, com- 
missary of Bishop of London, 99; 
controversy with Rev. George White- 
field, 234, 2.35, 23(5, 237, 238; estab- 
lishes school for negroes under 
Society for Propagation of the 
Gospel, 245, 24(), 247; mentioned in 
report of Commissary Bull, 4.35 ; his 
ministry, 439, 440 ; mentioned, 474. 

Garden, Dr. Alexander, sketch of, 
415, 416, 417. 

Garden, Alexander, barrister, 475. 

Garth, Charles, agent of colony, 361, 
3()2 ; correspondence with Commons 
in regard to controversy with Gov- 
ernor Boone, 363, 3()5; directed to 
join with agents of other colonies in 
obtaining repeal of Revenue acts, 
603 ; negotiates with Cumberland for 



INDEX 



823 



surrender of patent of Provost Mar- 
shal, 629, (i.'50; allowed a heariiii; by 
the Board of Trade, (539; instructed 
to complain to the King of the 
Council, m), 722; sends reply, 723. 

Gastons, none in Provincial Con- 
gress, 7(i"J. 

Gazette, publicatiou of, 147, 148 ; his- 
tory of the South Carolina Gazette, 
147, 148. 

General Committee, members of 
CharlestuAvn delegation made gen- 
eral committee of Provincial Con- 
gress, and charged with certain 
duties, 770 ; organize, 774 ; action of, 
in several cases, 775, 776, 777 ; upon" 
news of battle of Lexington recon- 
venes Provincial Congress, 789. 

George I, act passed recognizing, 35; 
dies before surrender of charter by 
Proprietors, 73 

George II, receives surrender of 
charter by Proprietors, 73. 

Georgia, settlement of, proposed by 
Oglethorpe, 113, 114; boundary be- 
tween South Carolina, 115. 

Georgetown, military district. Circuit 
Court established at, 139; town, 
when laid out and settled, 139, 
140. 

German Friendly Society, founded, 
.531. 

Germany, emigrants from, 122: settle 
in Orangeburg, 129; their religious 
tenets, 130; names of, 131 ; settle on 
Pee Dee, 137, 138. 

Gibbes, Henry, barrister, 475. 

Gibbes. William, member of Secret 
S(>rvic(' Committee, 786. 

Gibbes, William H., petitions King 
upon r.ostnu Port Bill, 733. 

Gibbon, William, Mayor of Charles 
City mid Port. 41. 

Gibert, Rev. Jean Louis, Huguenot 
colony of, 3()8. :W.), :'>"(); ancestor of 
James L. Petigru, 370; church built 
prior to Revolution, 448. 

Gibson, Dr. Edmund, Bishop of Lon- 
don, pastoral letters of, in regard 
to sbives, 51. 243, 244. 

Giessendanner, Rev. John, mentioned, 
131, 447. 



Giessendanner, Rev. John Ulrich, 

mentioned, 130, 447. 

Gillon, Alexander, reported to mu- 
tiny under Liberty Tree for viola- 
tion of Non-importation Agreement, 
(KiS. 

Glen, Governor James, letter to Lords 
Commissioners of Trade, mentioned, 
7, 15; quoted, 113; appointed Gov- 
ernor, 178 ; arrives in Charlestown 
and assumes administration, 250, 
251; his character, 251, 252; speech 
to General Assembly, 252, 253; ad- 
vances made on principles of govern- 
ment during his delay in England, 
2,54, 255 ; letters to the Duke of New- 
castle, 255; letter to Duke of Bed- 
ford, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260; second 
letter to same, 260, 261 ; report to 
Lords Commissioners of Trade, 262, 
2(m, 264, 2()5, 266, 267, 268, 269; takes 
part in controversy between Coun- 
cil and Commons upon tax bill, 
283, 284, 285; letter to Lieutenant 
Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia 
upon Indian trade, 302, 303, .304; 
conference with Attakullakulla, 305 ; 
treaty and extent of territory ob- 
tained thereby, 306, 307, 308 ; another 
conference with same, 309; conduct 
criticised, 309, 310; superseded, 310; 
superseded, 321, 323, 324, 325; men- 
tioned, 5.3(). 

Glen, William and Son, ()71. 

Godfrey, Mr., and family, murder of, 
185. 

Godin. Stephen, sent by Council to 
England witli representation in re- 
gard to controversy over currency, 
64, 87, 88. 

Godwin, Robert, member of Pro- 
vincial Congress, 762. 

Golightly, Mr., engages insurgent ne- 
groes. 185, 186. 

Gordon, Thomas Knox, last Chief Jus- 
tice under Royal government, -169, 
470; member of Council, 710; con- 
sulted by Lieutenant (Governor Bull 
as nu^mber of Council, 727. 

Goven, John, merchant of London, 
.S5. 

Graeme, David, lawyer, 473, 



824 



INDEX 



Graeme, James, committed by Com- 
mons' House of Assembly, 152 ; sues 
out habeas corinis, Ibid. ; struggle 
over 158, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 ; is 
released, 159; mentioned, Kil; Gov- 
ernor Glen recommends his appoint- 
ment as Chief Justice, 261 : appoint- 
ment and death of, 279; mentioned, 
464, 4(>5, 473. 

Granby, mentioned, 299. 

Grant, Lieutenant Colonel James, ex- 
pedition against Clierokees, 350, 351, 
352; duel with Colonel Middleton, 
352. 

Grants of Land, controversy over, 149, 
150, 151, 152. 

Granville County, Commissary Bull's 
rejiort in regard to churches in, 437. 

Granville's Bastion, 2S2. 

Greene, Captain, vestryman, 100. 

Greenville County, mentioned, 294. 

Grenville, George, mentioned, 478, 734. 

Grenville Ministry, fall of, 57S). 

Grimball, John, petitions against in- 
corporation of Charlestown, 42. 

Grimball, Thomas, attorney at law, 
4.S1. 

Grimke, John F., barrister, 475; peti- 
tions King upon Boston Port Bill, 
73o. 

Guerard, Benjamin, attorney at law, 
481. 

Guerard, John, member of Council, 
supports Stamp act, 561. 

Guerard, Peter Jacob, rcM'ard to, for 
inventing pendulum for husking 
rice, 388. 

Gundlay. James, one of the founders 
of Charlestown Library, 510. 

Gunn, Captain. See Heart of Oak, 

Gutterys, massacre at, 308, 309. 

Guy, Kev. William, Cmnmissary 
Bull's report in regard to, 435. 

Habeas Corpus Act, struggle over, by 
Commons' House and Chief Justice, 
148, 1.50, 151, 152, 153, 1.54, 1.55, 1.56, 
1.57, 1.58, 1.59, 160, KJl, 162, 163. 

Habersham, James, assists 'Whitetield 
in estal^lisliing orphan asylum, 2.35, 
24S. 

Haig, Mrs., her instruction of negroes, 
49, 50. 



Halfhyde, Mr., merchant of London, 

,S5. 

Hall, Arthur, member of grand jury, 
65. 

Hall, John, one of the Liberty Tree 
party, 391. 

Hall, John Abbott, on general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
651. 

Hall, Robert, provost marshal, 99, 
(;27. 

Hamerton, John, member of the Coun- 
cil, 107, 153 ; assists in settling Savan- 
nah, 165; mentioned, 181, 240. 

Hampton, Anthony, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, 503. 

Hampton, Edward, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, 503. 

Hampton, Henry, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, 503; among 
the first revolutionists, .558. 

Hampton, John, member of the Mount 
Zion Society, 503; among the first 
revolutionists, 558. 

Hampton, Bichard, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, .503 ; among the 
first revolutionists, 558. 

Hampton, 'Wade, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, -503; declares 
himself a loyal subject to the 
Crown, but subsequently renounces 
allegiance, 558. 

Hampton, 'William, member of the 
Mount Zion Society, 503. 

Hanckney, Partners, money sent to, 
for Wilkes, 663. 

Hancock, John, seizure of his sloop 
Librrti/, ()()]. 

Hardwicke, Lord, opinion in regard to 
the effect of baptism of negro slaves, 
49; opinion in regard to the status 
of negro slaves, 383, 384, 385, 386. 

Hargrave, Henry, lawyer, 473. 

Harleston, Edward, breeder of race- 
liin-ses, 522; menil)er of Commons, 
vote in regai'd to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610. 

Harleston, Isaac, part owner of cele- 
l)rat(-d race-horse Flimnap,524. 

Harleston, John, part owner of cele- 
brated race-horse, Flimnap, 5_'4 ; 
will manumitting his negro slave 



INDEX 



82r) 



groom, 524 n. ; mentioned, 50;?; 
member of Commons, vote in rej;iinl 
to Ma.ssai'husetts Anti-rescinders, 

Harleston, Nicholas, breeder of race- 
iiorses, 5'2'2. 

Harris, K.ev. John, Presbyterian min- 
ister iiiid teaclier, 454. 

Harris, Richard, legacy to free scbool, 
4S4. 

Harris, Tucker, doctor of medicine, 
42(1. 

Harrison, Rev. James, report to So- 
ciety for I'ropagatiouof Gospel upon 
Lndlani legacy, 4S5. 

Hart, Charles, member of Council, 

Hart, Rev. Mr., of the Baptist Church, 
Charlestowu, espouses cause of Rev- 
olution, 4.")(!. 

Harvey, Alexander, mentioned, 80. 

Harvey, Alexander, attorney at law, 
4SI. 

Hasell. Rev. Thomas, Commissary 
IJulTs report in regard to, 43(5. 

Hasfort, Joseph, subscribes to Lud- 
lani scIkioI (und, 48C. 

Hawes, Benjamin, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, .5!ll. 

Heart of Oak. Ship, Mr. Saxby arrives 
in, Willi staniiis, 570. 

Hector. The Man-of-war, 180, 105, 

Hemp, liounty allowed on, 100. 

Hepworth, Thomas, committee of cor- 
respondence with agent of colony, 
38; commits Landgrave to Smith, 
83; mentioned as Chief Justice, 107, 
4()0, 403. 

Herbert, John, commissioner of Ind- 
ian trade, 38. 

Herron. major of Oglethorpe's rcgi- 
nienl. 'Joc'-.W. -'OS. 

Hewatt, Rev. Alexander, D.D., min- 
ister First l'resl»yterian Church, 
(liarleslown, 443. 

Hewlett, John, merchant of London, 

S."). 

Hext, David, mentioned, 240. 

He3rward, Daniel, member of Com- 
mons, 510 ; remains loyal to the 
Crown, 557. 



Hejrward, Thomas, mentioned, 457; 
attorney at law, 480, 481 ; educated 
in England, 405 ; signer of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, 557 ; member 
of Commons, waits on Lieutenant 
Governor Bull, 745 ; mentioned, 
70(i. 

Heyward, William, barrister, 475; 
petitions King upon Boston Port 
Bill, 733. 

Higginson, surveyor of customs, death 
of, ISO. 

High Hills of Santee, emigrants from 
^'irginia settle on, 1.37. 

Hildreth, the historian, errors of, in 
regard to slave law in South Caro- 
lina. 4(), 4.S. 

Hildsley, Captain, R. N., accepts com- 
mission as colonel of militia, 34. 

Hill, Charles, committee of correspon- 
dence with agent of colony, 38 ; men- 
tioned as Chief Justice, 107, 402, 
403. 

Hills, none in Provincial Congress, 
71 !2. 

Hillsborough, Earl of, mentioned as 
secretary for colonies, 02; created 
Secretary of State for the colonies, 
4()0, 502 ; letter of, to the colonies in 
regard to the Massachusetts resolu- 
tions, 000, (iOl. 

Holland, emigrants from, 122. 

Holmes, Francis, petitions against 
incorporation of Charlestown, 42. 

Holt, Chief Justice, his position in re- 
gard to power of Commons to com- 
mit, 155, 102; opinion in regard to 
negro slaves, 383, 381, 385. 

Hopkins, John, member of Provincial 
(Congress, 702. 

Horry, Daniel, barrister, 475; dis- 
tinguished leader under Marion, 
557; memlier of Commons, 610. 

Horry, Elias, devise to charity school, 
487 ; declares his allegiance to tiie 
Crown, 557 ; member of Commons, 
vote in regard to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610. 

Horry, Hugh, distinguished leader 
under Marion. 557. 

Horse-racing, 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 
525, 503. 



826 



INDEX 



Horses, introduction and breeds of, 
518, 519; horse-racing, 520, 521, 522, 
52:5. 

Horsey, Colonel Samuel. Proprietors 
nominate for Governor, 62 ; recom- 
mend to Royal government, 72; 
Yonge, agent of colony, opposes 
nomination of, 73 ; Landgrave, Ibid. ; 
appointed Governor, but dies, 178. 

Housea, Henry, church warden, 101. 

How, Richard, merchant of London, 
85. 

Howard, Robert, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Howard, Lord, of Effingham, Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, mentioned, 71. 

Howarth, Colonel, accompanies Gov- 
ernor Lyttleton upon expedition 
against Cherokees, 335. 

Howell, William, member of Provin- 
cial Congress, 7<)2. 

Howley, Richard, attorney at law, 
481. 

Hudson, William, merchant of Lon- 
don, 85. 

Huger, Major Benjamin, killed on 
lines of Charlestown, 557; men- 
tioned on general committee Non- 
importation Association, 651 ; present 
at seizure of arras, 787. 

Huger, Daniel, foreman grand jury, 
()5 n. 

Huger, Daniel, his position in regard 
to Revolution, .557 n. 

Huger, Francis, breeder of race-horses, 
522 ; gives in submission to the King, 
557. 

Huger, Isaac, officer in Carolina regi- 
ment in expedition against Chero- 
kees, 350 ; brigadier general in Con- 
tinental army, 5.57. 

Huger, John, president Mount Zion 
Society, 503; member of Commons, 
-waits on Governor with message, 
608; vote of, on Massachusetts Anti- 
rescinders, 610; committee on Gov- 
ernor's message in regard to quar- 
tering of troops, 618; member of 
Council of Safety, 793. 
Huguenots, church of, report of Com- 

iiiissiiry HulS in regard to, 435. 
Hume. Robert, lawyer, assists in set- 



tling Savannah, 165; mentioned, 473; 
subscriber to Ludlam school fund, 
486. 
Humphries, Rev. Mr., Presbyterian 

minister and teacher, 454. 
Hunt, Rev. Brian, Commissary Bull's 

report in regard to, 436. 
Hunters, precede regular settlers, de- 
scription of, 295, 296. 
Hurricane (of 1728), 88, 89 ; (of 1752), 

277, 278. 
Hutson, Rev. William, interesting 
story of his conversion, 451 ; men- 
tion'ed, 451, 452, 455. . 
Hyrne. Major Henry, accompanies 
(Tovernor Lyttleton upon expedition 
against Cherokees, 335. 
Imports, want of information as to, 

;«)i. 
Indian Corn, Governor Glen's accoimt 

or, 2(13. 
Indian Trade Regulated, 38, 298. 
Indian Traders Precede Regular Set- 
tlers, description of, 297, 298. 
Indigo, Governor Glen's report in re- 
gard to, 264; introduction of, 267, 
2()8, 269, 270; increasing value of, 
389. 
Inns of Court, London, list of South 

Carolinians at, 475. 
Inoculation, introduction and practice 
of, in South Carolina, and contro- 
versy over, 424, 425, 426, 427, 428. 
Instructions of Governors, under 
Royal governments in place of char- 
ters, basis of government, 25. 
Ireland, emigrants from, 122. 
Irish Protestants, colony of, settle 
township of Williamsburg, 132, 133; 
names of, 133 »., 134 ii. ; their 
journeys and their hardships, 134, 
135. 
Izard, Eliza, Mrs., subscriber to Lud- 
lam school fund, 486. 
Izard, Henry, subscriber to Ludlam 

school fund, 486. 
Izard, Lady Sarah, wife of Lord Camp- 
bell, 709. 
Izard, Martha, subscriber to Ludlam 

school fund, 48(). 
Izard, Mary, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fuud, 486. 



INDEX 



827 



Izard, Kalpb, committee of corre- 
spondence with agent of colony, 38 ; 
member of Council, t)4 ; trustee of 
free school, 487 ; member of Council, 
712; petitions King upon Boston 
Port Bill, 733; mentioned. 741. 

Izard, Ralph, Jr., petitions King upon 
Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Jackson. Andrew, born at the Wax- 
haws, 3i(;. 

James, James, leader of Welch colo- 
nists, i;^i. 

Jennings, Edmond, petitions King 
upon Boston Port Bill, 73.3. 

John's Island, made part of St. John's 
Parish, Colleton, 138. 

Johnson, Joshua, petitions King upon 
Boston Port Piill. 733. 

Johnson, Rev. Gideon, mentioued,4.34. 

Johnson, Robert, mentioned, 5, (i; 
recognizes Royal government, .34 ; 
appointed first regular Royal Gov- 
ernor, 91 ; his commission and in- 
structions, i)2, i)3 ; arrives in Charles- 
town, 107; controversy with Gover- 
nor of North Carolina over boundary, 
110, 113; proclamation in regard to 
grants of land, 14i), I'lO; mentioned, 
1.53 n. ; death of, 167, 168 ; mentioned, 
4:u. ' 

Johnson. Sir Nathaniel, mentioned, 4. 

Johnson, William, lectures on elec- 
tricity. 4113, 494. 

Johnson. William, mentioned, 457; 
assembles party under the Liberty 
Tree, .589 : sketch of, 589 ; pledge of, 
to resist designs of Great Britain, 
590 ; present at seizure of arms, 787. 

Johnston, James, attorney at law, 481. 

Justice, administration of, 4(50, 461; 
curious order of Court of Chancery, 
473. 

Keating, Maurice, subscriber to Lud- 
larn school fund, 486. 

Kenyon, Lord, conduct of in regard 
House of Lords in case of one com- 
mitted by that body. 

Keowee. Fort, established at, .306, .307. 

Kershaw, County of, mentioned, 294. 

Kershaw. Ely, merchant, established 
on Pec Dec, 408; member of Mount 
Zion Society, 50.3. 



Kershaw, Joseph, merchant, estab- 
lished on Pee Dee, town of Camden 
founded by, 408 ; county named in 
honor of, 409 ; chairman committee of 
Commons to whom referred memo- 
rials of Bell and others, and report 
thereon, ()4] ; mentioned, 758, 760. 

Kershaw, William, merchant, estab- 
biished on Pee Dee, 408, 409; mem- 
ber (if INIount Zion Society, 503. 

Kimherley, Thomas, Proprietors ap- 
point Chief Justice, 72; mentioned, 
4()2, 473. 

Kinloch, Francis, barrister, 475. 

Kinloch, James, member of Council, 
(i.5, 107, 153; mentioned, 712. 

Kinloch, John, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fuuil, 486. 

Kinstree, township, 121 ; derivation of 
name, 134. 

Kirkland, Moses, member of Com- 
mons, 610; his character, memorial- 
izes Assembly, 626 ; rescues negroes 
from Deputy Provost Marshal and 
ill treats him, 634. 

Labor, prices of, 274. 

Lacanola, or Lacaweld, palmetto hut, 
Florida, mentioned, 204, 207, 209, 
210. 

Laceys, none in Provincial Congress, 
762. 

Lacock, Aaron, successful merchant, 
409. 

Ladson. Francis, member of grand 
jury, (15. 

Ladson, Robert, attorney at law, 
481. 

Lamb, Sir Matthew, of his Majesty's 
Council, report on Circuit Court 
Bill. 6.38, 6.39. 

Lambert, Rev. John, master of free 
school, monument of, 483. 

Lamboll. Thomas. as,si.stant judge, 461. 

Lancaster. County of, mentioned, 294. 

Lansac. Susanna, subscriber to Lud- 
lam .school fuiul, 48(). 

La Pierre, Rev. John. Commissary 
Bull's rciiort in regard to, 4.")6. 

La Roche, Daniel, trustee for laying 
out (ieoi'getowTi, 139, 140. 

Lartugue, Pierre, French Protestant 
settler at Abbeville, 370. 



828 



INDEX 



Laughton, William, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Laurens County, mentioned, 294, .H07. 

Laurens, Henry, Lieutenant Colonel, 
in Carolina regiment, expedition 
against Clierokees, 350 ; takes j^art 
in controversy between Governor 
Boone and Mr. Gadsden, 3()1 ; a suc- 
cessful and distinguished merchant, 
400, 404, 405, 406, 410; mentioned, 
457 ; controversy with Egerton 
Leigh, 471; educated in England, 
495 ; his position in regard to Stamp 
act, 564, 565, 567, 568 ; his treatment 
by mob, 568, 569; mechanics oppose 
him, but is elected to the Commons, 
604, 605 ; committee to whom speech 
of Governor referred, 607 ; vote in 
regard to Massachusetts Anti-re- 
cinders, 610; presides over meet- 
ing of Non-importation Association 
under Liberty Tree, 668, 679; peti- 
tions King ui^on Boston Port Bill, 
733 ; present at seizure of arms, 787 ; 
President of Provincial Congress, 
792; member of Council of Safety, 
793; mentioned, 797. 

Laurens, John, Father of Henry, 
petitions against incorporation of 
Charlestown, 42; warden of St. 
Philip's Church, 101 ; mentioned, 
457 ; on general committee Non- 
importation Association, 651. 

Laurens, John, Son of Henry, bar- 
rister, 475; educated in England, 
495. 

Lawley, Captain Miles, of nhipPlant- 
pr's Adventure, supposed to have 
Ijrought stamps, 565. 

Lawton, John, one of the Liberty Tree 
party, 591. 

Lawyers, none before the arrival of 
Trott, names of those practising 
under Proprietary government, 459; 
influence of, under Royal govern- 
nifut, 460. 

Lebby, Nathaniel, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Lee, William, petitions King upon 
Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Legare, Daniel, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, 651. 



Legare, Solomon, petitions against in- 
C(ir[ioraii(in of Cliarlestowu, 42. 

Leigh, Egerton, Son of Peter, Judge 
of Admiralty, his offices and char- 
acter, 471, 472, 481 ; mentioned, 
533 ; opposes opening court without 
stamps, 573; Grand Master of Free 
Masons, 613: claims compensation 
for loss of emoluments of office upon 
establishment of Circuit Courts, 256 ; 
and is provided for, 632 ; member of 
Council resents appropriation for 
support of Wilkes, 683; mentioned 
as member of Council, 710 ; jjub- 
lishes pamphlet, 722 ; consulted by 
Lieutenant Governor Bull as mem- 
ber of CtnuK'il, 727. 

Leigh, Peter, circumstances of his 
appointment as Chief Justice, 279, 
280, 281. 465: mentioned, 471, 533. 

Le Jau, Kev. Francis, his instruction 
of negroes, 49. 

Le Jau, Francis, Lieutenant Colonel, 
Carolina regiment in Oglethorpe's 
expedition against Florida, 196, 197, 
20(i, 21(;, 221. 

Le Eoy, Moses, French Protestant, set- 
tles in Abbeville, 370. 

Lesesne, Isaac, on genei'al committee 
Non-importation As.sociation, 651. 

Lewis, John, lawyer, mentioned, 473. 

Lewis, Major, sent fi'om Virginia 
to assist in building Fort Loudon, 
323. 

Lewis, Maurice, Judge of Admiralty, 
death of, 180. 

Lewis, Rev. John, espouses cause of 
Ke volution, 4r)0. 

Lewis Sedgewicke, subscriber to Lud- 
lani s^'hool I'lind, 48li. 

Liberty, The Sloop, seizure of, at Bos- 
ton, 601. 

Liberty Tree, position of, 589, .590; 
meetings under, 589, 590 : pledge of 
resistance to designs of Gi-eat Britain 
made there, 590; names of those 
present, 5!t0, 591 ; mechanics meet 
under, and nominate candidates for 
representation, 604, 653 ; mentioned, 
652 ; meeting of non-importers under, 
664, 665, am, ()67, 668, 6t)9, 670, 671, 679, 
680. 



INDEX 



829 



Libraries, lliat in Charlestown the 
lirst i)ul)lii; library in America, 508, 

Library Society, Charlestown, con- 
j;raliilales Governor Lyttletou upon 
his return from expedition against 
Cherokees, ^0, history of, 510, 511, 
nil.'. 

Lieutenant Governors, appointments 
of, 70, 71; frequent administration 
of, while Governors remained in 
Knsland, 71 ; position and duties of, 
•15. 

Ligbtwood, Mr., case of, under Non- 
importation Agreement, G7o, (i7G. 

Limerick, the fall of, mentioned, 311. 

Lind, Tbomas, mores to "break 
througl) " Non-importation Agree- 
moiil, (;so. 

Lining. Charles, attorney at law, 481. 

Lining, Dr. John, sketch of, 414, 415 ; 
(liiarautinc (itH<'er, 4211. 

Little Carpenter, Indian Chief. See 
Attakullakulla. 

Little Carpenter. The Ship, 5.37. 

Little River, or Long Canes. See Long 
Canes. 

Livingston, Rev. William, minister 
of Indcpondent or Congregational 
Churcli, 411, 44.-}. 

Lloyd, Caleb, commandant of Fort 
•liiliuson, stamp distributer, 5()7; 
forced ti) decline office, 570, 571. 

Lloyd, John, .agent of colony, ;>8 ; in- 
striiciions to, ;>0 ; speech of, 1(10. 

Lloyd, John, nominated by mechanics 
for the Commons, G05; committee 
to whom (.Tovernor's sjicech referred, 
607 ; vote in regard to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, (!10. 

Locock. Aaron, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, tl.Tl ; 
n)cnil)fr of I'i'ovincial Congress, 7(>"2. 

Logan. Dr. George, mentioned, 4'20. 

Logan, William, one of the founders 
Cbarlcstow n Library. 510. 

London, Bishop of. jurisdiction pre- 
scribed, ;>0: i)astoral letter of , in re- 
gard to ciYect of baptism upon negro 
slaves, 51, 52 ; another in regard to 
treatment of slaves, 244; jurisdic- 
tion of, mentioned, 4154. 



London, The Ship, 5.37 ; London packet, 
537; William Henry Drayton sails 
in, (>()4; arrives with tea, action of 
the i)eoplo tliereon, 725, 72(i, 727. 

Long Canes, or Little River, men- 
tioned, .307, ol(> ; massacre at, 342. 

Lord, Andrew, on general committee 
Non-importation Committee, ()51. 

Lorimer, Rev. Charles, minister of 
First Presbyterian Church, Charles- 
town, 443. 

Loudon, Fort, built, 323; capitulates, 
347. 

Lowndes, Charles, mentioned as re- 
maining loyal to the Crown, 5.57; 
Provost Marshal, (i27. 

Lowndes, Rawlins, mentioned, .373, 
457; encomiums upon, as assistant 
judge, 470, 471 ; mentioned, 5.33; goes 
with revolutionary party, 557 ; As- 
sistant Judge, opens court adjourned 
by Chief Justice Shinner for want of 
stamps, 573, 574; statue of Pitt or- 
dered by Commons on his motion, 
58() ; member of Commons, (ilO ; com- 
mittee on Governor's message in re- 
gard toqnarteringof troops, (517 ; Pro- 
vost Mai-sbal, 627; elected speaker, 
6i)9; Governor's quarrel with, over 
journal of Commons, 701, 702, 703, 
704 ; as assistant judge releases 
Powell, the printer, on habeas corpus 
proceedings, 717, 718, 71!t, 720, 721 ; 
broaches the subject of the power of 
Parliament, 738, 739; proposed, but 
defeated for General Congress, 741 ; 
supports Gadsden in opposition to 
exception of rice fi'om Non-importa- 
tion Agreement, 7(j7 ; supports Gen- 
eral Committee in case of the landing 
of certain lioi'ses under the Non-im- 
portation Agreement, 77(i, 777 : pleads 
for moderation, maintains general 
supremacy of Parliament, 789 ; mem- 
ber of Council of Safety, 793. 
Lowndes, Thomas, negotiates surren- 
der of charter of Proprietors, 73; 
purchases a laudgraveship and is 
made Provost Marshal, 73, 98, 99; 
nu^ntioned, 107, G27. 
Lucas, Eliza, introduces the cultiva- 
tion of indig<t, 2()7, 208. 



830 



INDEX 



Lucas, Governor George, Governor of 
Antigua, lather of Eliza Lucas, 

'2(;7. " 

Lucas, Jonathan, invents an im- 
proved rice mill, 388. 

Ludlam, Rev. Richard, legacy for 
founding free schools, 67; Commis- 
sary Bull's report in regard to, 435; 
increase of f uud. Rev. Mr. Harrison's 
rejtort in regard to, 485. 

Ludwell, Colonel Philip, mentioned, 3. 

Lumber, exportation of, 61. 

Lynch, James, subscriber to Ludlam 
schiiol fund, 486. 

Lynch, Thomas, mentioned, 372, 457 ; 
appointeci to represent colony in Con- 
gress called by Massachusetts, 563 ; 
requested by Commons to sit for his 
picture, 586; mentioned, 587; com- 
mittee to whom Governor's speech 
referred, 607; member of Commons, 
vote in regard to Massachusetts Anti- 
rescinders, 610 ; committee on Gov- 
ernor's message in regard to quar- 
tering troops, and report thereon, 
617, 618, 611), 620; on general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
(;51 ; on committee to send funds in 
support of Wilkes, 6(53; mentioned, 
684, 685, 686, 687; sent to General 
Congress, 741 ; mentioned, 752 ; sus- 
tains John Rutledge in the exception 
of rice from Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 767 ; present at seizure of 
arms, 787 ; propounds to Commons 
whether delegates to Continental 
Congress should engage contribution 
to common cause, 788. 

Lynch, Thomas, Jr., barrister, 475 ; 
educated in England, 495; supports 
John Rutledge in the exception of 
rice from Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 767. 

Lyttleton, William Henry, appointed 
Governor, 321; captured by Frencli 
sliip on way out. Ibid. ; released 
and arrives in Charlestown, 322 ; his 
reception, Ibid.; mentioned, 323; 
assumes government, 325; contro- 
versy between Council and Commons 
quieted, and Acadians provided for, 
325, 326, 327, 328 ; treatment of Intlian 



embassy, 332, 333, 334, 335 ; marches 
against Chei'okees, 335, 336; sends 
for Attakullakulla and treats with 
him, 336, 337 ; treaty made, 338 ; con- 
duct considered, 33'.t; returns to 
Charlestown, 340 ; received as a con- 
queror, 340, 341 ; promoted to gov- 
ernment of Jamaica, and leaves 
Ijroviuce, 343; mentioned, 347, 512, 
5.36. 

Mace, Silver, borne before Provincial 
Congress, history of, 782, 783. 

Mackenzie, John, subscriber to Lud- 
lam scliool fund, 48(); on general 
committee Non-importation Asso- 
ciation, 651 ; takes part in contro- 
versy with William Henry Drayton, 
654, 657. 

Mackenzie, William, church warden, 
100. 

Macon County, North Carolina, men- 
tioned, 347. 

Maintree, James, merchant of Lou- 
don, 85. 

Malatche. Indian orator, 302. 

Manigault, Gabriel, vestryman St. 
Philip's Church, 100 : richest mer- 
chant in Carolina, 400, 402, 410 ; edu- 
cated in England, 495; contribution 
to College of Philadelphia, 500; gone 
with revolutionary party, 557. 

Manigault, Gabriel, Jr., barrister, 
475; declares his allegiance to the 
Crown, 5.57. 

Manigault, Joseph, barrister, 475. 

Manigault. Judith, mentioned, 100. 

Manigault, Peter, petitions against in- 
cori)oration of Charlestown, 42. 

Manigault, Peter, mentioned, 372; 
called to the bar in England, 474, 
475; speaker of Commons, 475; let- 
ter of, to his fatlier, 476; mentioned, 
478; educated in England, 495; men- 
tioned, 512, 533; correspondence 
with Lieutenant Governor Bull in 
regard to removal Dougal Campbell, 
clerk of court, 575 ; mentioned, 587 ; 
answers circular letters of House of 
Representatives of Massachusetts 
and House of Burgesses of Vir- 
ginia, 603: mentioned, 604 ; reelected 
si)caker, 607 ; vote in regard to Massa- 



INDEX 



831 



chusetts Anti-rescinders, 610; sends 
copies of journals of Commons to 
speakers of Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia, Oil ; reelected speaker, 614 ; 
committee to send funds for support 
of ^Vilkes, 663; on Committee of 
Non-importers to prepare protest 
upon violation of agreement in other 
colonies, (iSl ; mentioned, 687; re- 
elected speaker, 695 ; re-elected, 698 ; 
resigns and dies soon after, 699 ; 
nicMtioned, 737, 79(). 

Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, deci- 
sion in the " Somerset" or "Negro 
Case," 381, 382, 386 ; mentioned, 478 ; 
advocates the Stamp act, 553, 582. 

Manufactures, importation of, 60. 

Maps of Carolina, 115, 301. 

Marion, Francis, otttcer in Carolina 
regiment in expedition against 
Cherokees, 350. 

Marion, James, subscriber to Ludlam 
.school fund, 486. 

Martial Law, not to he i)ut in force 
without the consent of the Council, 
31. 

Martin, Rev. John Nicholas, pastor 
St. .lohns Lutheran Church, 44(;. 

Maryland, precedent in regard to, 
upon overthrow of Proprietary 
government followed, 18; men- 
tioned, :'>2'.l. 

Mason, William, attorney at law, 
481. 

Massachusetts, resolutions of House 
of Representatives of, and circular 
letter, 5!KJ, 597, 598, .^>99, 600; letters 
of the Earl of Hillsborough ordering 
resolution rescinded, 602; House of 
Representatives refuses to rescind, 
Ihid. 

Massey, Captain Edward, sent from 
England to inquire into the burning 
of the fort on the Altamaha, 76. 

Master in Chancery, ottice of, 1K5, 97 ; 
coiiimuMications from (Governor to 
Commons, sent by, 747. 

Master, title of Presbyterian clergy- 
iiHMi who taught, .501, 502. 

Matanzas River, Fl()ri<la, 200. 

Mathews, Ann, ca.se of, for violation 
of Non-importation Agreement, is 



advertised by general committee, 
671; her letter thereon, 672, 673; 
case considered at meeting under 
Liberty Tree, she is condemned, 674, 
675, 676. 

Mathews, Benjamin. See Ann 
Mathews above, 679. 

Mathews, John, barrister, 475; men- 
tioned, 480, 481 ; on general commit- 
tee Non-importation Association, 
6.51. 

Maxwell, Captain, lieutenant in Ogle- 
thorpe's expedition, 203, 204. 

Mazyck, Benjamin, subscriber to 
Ludlam school fund, 486. 

Mazyck, Isaac, petitions against 
incorporation of Charlestown, 42; 
successful merchant, 400, 401. 

Mazyck, Isaac (2d), on committee to 
report on Oglethorpe's expedition 
against St. Augustine, 199; men- 
tioned, 373 ; successful merchant, 
401; assistant judge, 402, 470; ill- 
ness of, ()77. 

Mazyck, Paul, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486; mentioned, 593. 

Mazyck, William, barrister, 475, 481, 

McCall. Hext, barrister, 475. 

McCaulay, Alexander, one of the 
founders of Chariest own library, 510. 

McCaule, Rev. John Harris, presides 
over Mount Zion Society School, 
455 ; proposes to enlarge school into 
College, 503. 

McClures, none in Provincial Congress, 
762. 

McCrady, Edward, one of the founders 
of the M(Uint Zion Society, 502. 

McDonnell, is advertised by committee 
for violating Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 658. 

McGirt. Daniel, mentioned, (538. 

Mcintosh, Captain, in Oglethorpe's 
expedition against St. Augustine, 
214. 217. 

Mcintosh, Lachlan, Lieutenant, 
accompanies Governor Lyttleton 
upon expedition against Cherokees, 
;W5. 

McKay, Captain Hugh, cajitain in 
Oglethorpe's expedition against St. 
Augustine, 214, 217. 



832 



INDEX 



McKenzie, John, subscriber to Liidlam 
school lund,48ti; enters the contro- 
versy over Noii-importation Agree- 
ment, U54; ou committee to prepare 
protest upon violation of Non-impor- 
tation Agreement by other colonies, 
C81, 737. 

McKenzie, William, warden St. 
Philip's Church, lOn. 

McKie, Patrick, one of the founders 
Chiirlestown Library, 510. 

McRae, Duncan, successful merchant 
established at Pine Tree near Cam- 
den, 408, 409. 

Mechanics. See Liberty Tree. Nomi- 
nate candidates for the Commons, 
604 ; meeting of, to resist Revenue 
act, 645 ; committee of, ()51 ; men- 
tioned, 69(>: again move, 728. 

Menandez, Don Francisco, confers 
with President Middleton as to 
boundaries between Florida and 
South Carolina, 75. 

Merchandise, basis of most fortunes 
in South Carolina, ."99. 

Merchants of Carolina, sketches of, 
400, 401, 402, 40.;, 404, 405, 406, 407, 
408; as a class opposed to revolu- 
tion, 409, 410, 411, 412. 

Merchants of London, action of, in 
regard to Carolina currency, 85, 86; 
names of, 85. 

Merritt (or Morritt), Rev. Thomas, 
missionary, report of Commissary 
Bull in regard to, 435. 

Michie, James, one of Committee of 
Council to reply to remonstrance 
of Commons, 288; Chief Justice, 
465. 

Middleton, Arthur, on Committee of 
Correspondence with agent of col- 
ony, 38 ; mentioned as member of 
Council, 64; government devolves 
upon, as President of Council, 69; 
difficulties of his position, Ih'ul. : 
character of, 73, 74 ; confers with 
commissioners of Florida as to 
boundaries, 75 ; appoints William 
Palmer to command exiiedition 
against Spaniards, 77 ; appoints 
agents to watch Clierokees and 
Creeks, 79; unpopularity of, and 



charges against, 80; collision with 
House of Assembly over bills of 
credit, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87; 
is superseded by Governor Johnson, 
91 ; member of Council, 107 ; opposes 
printing Trott's Laws, 146; men- 
tioned, 171, 175; death of, 177; 
trustee of free school, 487 ; men- 
tioned, 712. 

Middleton, Arthur (2d), son of above, 
educated in England, 495; member 
of Secret Service Committee, 786 ; 
member of Council of Safety, 793; 
mentioned. 796. 

Middleton, Colonel Thomas, com- 
mands Carolina regiment in expe- 
dition against Clierokees, 350; duel 
with Colonel Grant, 352 ; subscriber 
to Ludlam school fund, 486; one 
of the founders of Charlestown 
Library, 510. 

Middleton, Henry, mentioned, 404; 
suljscrilier to support of college of 
Philadelphia, 500 ; member of Coun- 
cil, resents appropriation of funds 
to support of Wilkes, 683 ; men- 
tioned, 712; sent to General Con- 
gress, 741 ; mentioned, 754 ; member 
Provincial Congress, 761, 762. 

Middleton, Sarah, subscriber to Lud- 
lam sclioiil lund, 486. 

Middleton. William, member of As- 
semljly, distributes money of Parlia- 
ment to sufferers by great fire in 
1740, 240; sub.scriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486; breeder of race- 
horses, 522; member of Council, 
712; petitions King upon Boston 
Port Bill, 733. 

Middleton, William, Jr., petitions 
King upon Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Miller, Stephen D., mentioned as one 
coming from the Waxhaws, 317. 

Milligan, George, surgeon, accompa- 
nies Governor Lyttleton upon expe- 
dition against Cherokees, 335. 

Molasses, importation of, 61. 

Money Eills, merchants memorialize 
against and are arrested, 64 ; strug- 
gle over. 64, (i5. 

Montagu, Lord Charles Greville, men- 
tioned, 475, 512; attends ball St. 



INDEX 



833 



Cecilia Society, 529; arrives in 
province, 587; his reception, oSS; 
elected President Library Society, 
o92; embarks for Philadelpliia, n93 : 
returns, Ibid. ; calls attention to the 
condition of up country, 593, 594; 
visits Boston, 607 ; speech to Com- 
mons upon his return, reply of 
Commons thereto, 608 ; speech of, 
615 ; Commons reply thereto, 615, 
616; embarks for England, 618, 
619 ; returns in ill humor, takes up 
residence on James's Island, 693, 694 ; 
dissolves Assembly, ((94; summons 
new Assembly to meet at Beaufort, 
695, 69(); conduct to Assembly there, 
697, 698 ; prorogues them back to 
Charlestown, 699; Commons com- 
plain of, 700 ; quarrel with Speaker 
Lowndes over journal of Commons, 
701, 702; dissolves Assembly, 703; 
administration ends, 704; embarks 
for England, 705; mentioned, 724, 
758. 

Montaig^. Due de, subscribes for the 
l)pnptit of Purry's colony, 127. 

Montgomery, Colonel, arrives with 
two regiments and marches against 
Cherokees, 346; indicts summary 
vengeance, 347 ; embarks for Eng- 
land. 350. 

Montgomery, Sir Robert, mentioned, 
11.;. 

Moore, Fort, mentioned, 300, 323. 

Moore, James, Governor Eden of 
North Carolina refuses to recognize, 
as Governor of South Carolina, 4 ; 
mentioned, 5, 17 ; speaker of Com- 
mons, '.i5 : proceedings and acts of 
his government confirmed, 36; men- 
tioned, 42; quarrels with Colonel 
Rhett, 56; death of, 57; mentioned, 
88, 4lil. 

Moore, Lady, her instructions of ne- 
groes, .")(>. 

Moore. Roger, mentioned, t)2. 

Moosa, Fort. St. Augustine, 211, 212; 
occupied l)y Oglethorpe's troops. 
Colonel Pahner in command, 214, 
215; massacre at, 218, 219, 220. 

Moragne, Pierre, French Protestant, 
settles in Abbevill(\ 370. 



Morbray.Dr., surgeon British nian-of- 
\\;ir, iiilL'dduces inoculation, 424. 

Morley, George, Provost Marshal, 
99, 627. 

Morris, Jane, subscriber to Ludlam 
.scliool fiuiil, 486. 

Morris, John, his instruction of ne- 
groes, 50. 

Morrison, Rev. Philip, minister first 
Presbyterian Church, Charlestown, 
443. 

Morrit, Rev. Thomas. See Merritt. 

Morton, John, subscriber to Ludlam 
scliool fund, 486. 

Morton, Landgrave Joseph, his lu- 
st met ion of negi'oes, 50, 

Mote, Major, 130, 131. 

Motte. Charles, attorney at law, 481. 

Motte, Isaac, petitions King upon 
ISnston Port Bill, 733. 

Motte, Jacob, contributes to school for 
negroes, 246; treasurer. Commons 
passes order on, for support of 
Wilkes, (i(;2. 

Motte, John Abraham, vestryman St. 
Philip's (Jhurcli, 100. 

Moultrie, Alexander, mentioned, 141 ; 
barrister, 475, 480, 481; serves in 
Continental army, 557. 

Moultrie, Dr. John, settles in Charles- 
town, 141 ; mentioned, 414 ; President 
of h acuity of Medicine, 432. 

Moultrie, Dr. John (2d ) , Son of above ; 
nieutioueit7'141 ; major in Carolina 
regiment in expedition against Cher- 
okees, 3.')0; sketch of, 418, 419; sub- 
scriber to Ludlam school fund, 486; 
remains loyal to the Crown, 557. 

Moultrie, Thomas, mentioned, 141, 

Moultrie, William, mentioned, 141; 
aide-de-camp to Governor Lyttleton 
upon expedition against Cherokees, 
335 ; officer in Carolina regiment in 
Grant's expedition against same, 
350; mentioned in connection with 
Governor Bocme's controversy with 
Commons, 364; hero of Fort Sul- 
livan, 557 ; member of Commons, 
vote in regard to Massachusetts 
Anti-re.scinders, (ilO ; committee on 
Governor's message in regard to 
quartering of troops, 618 ; on general 



834 



INDEX 



committee Non-importatioa Asso- 
ciation, 651 ; presides over meeting 
under Liberty Tree, ()79. 

Mount Zion Society, establislied, 502; 
si'liool of, 50o. 

Mouzon's map of South Carolina, 
115. 

Moytoy, Indian chief, appointed chief 
of Indian nations, 103. 

Muhlenherg, Kev. Henry Melchoir, 
preacher in Cliarlestown, 446. 

Munclear, Peter, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591. 

Murray, John, assistant judge, 469; 
deatb of, mentioned, 748. 

Music, School of, 491, 492, 528. 

Naval Stores, exportation of, 61. 

Navigation Act, agents of Carolina 
instructed to endeavor to have rice 
taken from enumerated articles un- 
der, 40 ; mentioned, 109, 2(i(i, 267, 272 ; 
the policy of, and its influence upon 
the Revolution, 542, 543, 544, 545, 
546, 547, 548, 549; mentioned, 585, 
763, 769. 

Neal, Anthony, merchant of London, 
85. 

"Negro," or "Somerset Case," 381, 
382, 383, 386. 

Negro Slaves, tlireat of insurrection of, 
5 ; trusty enlistment of, 14 ; regarded 
as real estate, 16 ; tax on importa- 
tion of, 39; slave code revised, 46, 
47 ; tax upon importation of, 48 ; 
baptism of, and its effect, 48, 49; 
religious instruction of, 49, 50, 51, 
52; commercial exchange for, 60; 
tax upon importation of, 143; dis- 
proportionate increase of, 183, 184; 
insurrection of, 184, 185, 186, 187; 
slave code revised, 230, 231 ; tax on 
importation of, 233; negro burned, 
233; religious instruction of, 243, 
244, 245,' 246, 247; Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel estab- 
lishes school for instruction of, 248, 
249; Whitefield's conduct in relation 
to, 248, 249; numbers of, returned 
for taxation, 377; duties on impor- 
tation of, prohibited by Royal gov- 
ernment, 378; importation of, 379, 
381, 382; decisions of English courts 



in regard to, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 

386. 

Neufville, John, mentioned, 411; 
one of the founders of Charlestown 
Library, 510 ; chairman general com- 
mittee of Non-importation Asso- 
ciation, 651; reports Mr. Gillon's case 
to meeting under Liberty Tree, 664, 
665, 666. 

Neufville, Zachariah, doctor of medi- 
cine, 420. 

Newberry County, mentioned, 294, 307. 

New Bordeau, Abbeville County, set- 
tlement of, 368. 

New Rochelle, Abbeville County, 368. 

News and Courier, successor to South 
Carolina Gazette, 148. 

Newspapers, first in colony, 144, 146, 
147, 148; in America prior to, 147; 
in South Carolina, 504, 505 ; as com- 
pared with other colonies, 505, 506 ; 
file of, in Charlestown Library, 507 ; 
contents of a colonial newspaper, 
507. 

New Windsor, township, 121. 

New York, Governor of, mentioned, 
.".29. 

Neyle, Philip, barrister, 475; petitions 
King upon Boston Port Bill, 733. 

Nicholas, Henry, barrister, 475. 

Nicholson, Sir Francis, appointed 
Royal Governor, 20; sketch of him, 
20, 21, 22, 23, 24; his instructions 
and scheme of government under, 
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; arrives 
in Charlestown, 33; pleased with 
prospects, 35; issues writs for elec- 
tion. Ibid. ; incorpoi-ates Charles- 
town, 40; complains to Governor of 
Florida, 54; turns attention to set- 
tlement of frontiers, and holds con- 
gress with Indians, Ibid. ; appoints 
Wrosetasatow Commander-in-chief 
of Cherokees, 55 ; concludes treaty 
with Creeks, Ibid. ; quarrels with 
Rhett, 56 ; appoints receiver and 
treasurer of province. Ibid. ; men- 
tioned, 61 ; wishes to be relieved, 62; 
letter to Board of Trade upon charac- 
ter of people, /6i(?. ; complains of Mr. 
Rhett and Roger Moore, Ibid. ; in- 
structions to, as to currency, 64; his 



INDEX 



835 



proclamation thereon, 65; his con- 
nection with the struggle tliere over, 
65; postpones visit to Great Britain, 
66 ; his character and generosity 
66, G7, 68; sails for England, 68; 
mentioned, 69, 71; returns home 
charged with many complaints, 73 ; 
mentioned, 100, 107, 171, 174, 230, 
434. 

Nightingale, Thomas, owner of cow 
pen, 296; owner of race course, 521 ; 
breeder of race-horses, 522, 523 ; en- 
ters horses New Market Course, 
593. 

Ninety-six, military district, 139, 643 ; 
Governor Glen arrives at, 324; Cir- 
cuit Court established at, 643. 

Non-importation, proposed in New 
York and Massachusetts, 644, 645 ; 
mechanics meet under the Liberty 
Tree, and merchants at Dillon's 
Tavern to consider, 645 ; agreement 
proposed, 645, 646, 647 ; newspaper 
controversy over, 647, 648, (549, 6.jU; 
meeting of inhabitants agreed upon, 
650; general committee to enforce, 
651 ; controversy over, 652, 653, ()54, 
655, 656; committee advertise Mc- 
Donnell, 658 ; Mr. Drayton petitions 
against, 6ii0, 6(51, 662; renewed by 
General Congress, rice excepted, 
764; action thereon in Provincial 
Congress, 765, 766, 767, 7(i8, 769, 
770 ; enforcement of, 774 ; discussion 
thereon, 774, 775, 776, 777. 

Norburry, Captain, officer in Ogle- 
thori)e's expedition, 207, 208. 

Norman, Joseph, subscriber to Lud- 
lani school rami, 486. 

North Carolina, remaining a Proprie- 
tary government, 4 ; proposal to 
appoint Lieutenant Governor for, 18, 
19 ; boundary line of, dispute as to, 
110, 111, 112; Lieutenant Governor 
Hull appeals to, for assistance, ;?46. 

North, Lord, announces measures to 
put down disturbances at Boston, 
732 ; announces coercive measures 
would cease upon submission of colo- 
nists, 785; and proposes measures of 
reconciliation, 785, 786. 

Occonostota, Indian chief, embassy to 



Governor Lyttleton, 331, 332 ; his 
treatment by the Governor, 333, 334, 
335; guarded as prisoner, 335, 336; 
release obtained by AttakuUakulla, 
338; becomes an implacable enemy 
to Carolinians, 341; mentioned, 352; 
dances the eagle tail dance, 592. 
Occupations, Governor Glen's report 

in regard to, 274. 
Oconee County, mentioned, 294, 347. 

Oglethorpe, General, proposes settle- 
ment of Georgia, 113, 114; contrib- 
utes to aid of Swiss colonists, 127 ; 
arrives in Charlestown, 1()4; selects 
site of Savannah, Ibid. ; returns to 
Charlestown for further assistance 
and is entertained, 166; Commander- 
in-chief of forces in South Carolina 
and Georgia, 179 ; his military train- 
ing, 179 ; sails for England to raise 
forces against Spaniards in Florida, 
188; raises regiment with which he 
returns, 189; attempts to raise one 
thousand Indians, 190; urges Lieu- 
tenant Governor Bull to join in in- 
vasion of Florida, 191 ; mistake in 
prematurely raising Indians, 191; 
estimate of forces necessary, 193; 
comes to Charlestown to press for 
assistance, 194, 195; his invasion of 
Florida, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 
205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 
213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 
221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 
229 ; his regiment mentioned, 346 . 

Old Hop, Indian chief, mentioned, 333. 

Oliphant, Dr. David, member of Com- 
mons, on committee on Governor's 
message in regard to quartering of 
troops, 618. 

Oliphant, William, barrister, 475. 

Orangeburg, township, 122; settlers 
in, 130, i;!l, 132. 

Orangeburg, military district, 139; 
Circuit Coui'l established at. (543. 

Orkney, Lord. Governor of Virginia, 
mcMlioncd, 70, 71. 

Osborne, Rev., Commissary Bull's re- 
port in regard to his death, 437. 

Ouldfield, John, surveyor, lays out 
" Welch Tract," 136. 

Over Hill Indians, mentioned. 323. 



836 



INDEX 



Overtou, Captain, sent from Virginia 
to assist iu building Fort Loudon, 
n23. 

Pablo River, Florida, 200. 

Packhor semen, in Indian traffic, 2i)8. 

Palatines, Germans, IL".). 

Palmer, Colonel William, appointed 
to command of forces against Span- 
iards and Yaniassees, invades and 
devastates Florida, 77, 78; men- 
tioned, 195 ; accompanies Oglethorpe 
on his expedition, 211 ; sent by Ogle- 
thorpe to Fort Moosa against his 
protest, 215 ; his party attacked and 
destroyed, 216, 217 ; his heroic death, 
218. 

Palmer, Captain William, Son of 
Colonel William Palmer, accom- 
panies Oglethorpe's expedition, 211, 
215. 

Park, Anthony, Indian trader, 297. 

Parker, John, barrister, 475 ; sub- 
scriber to Ludlam school fund, 48() ; 
on general committee Non-importa- 
tion Association, 651. 

Parker, Rev. James, letter approving 
Bishop of Loudon's pastoral in re- 
gard to negro slaves, 244. 

Parris, Alexander, public treasurer, 
o8. 

Parsons, James, mentioned in connec- 
tion with Governor Boone's contro- 
versy with Commons, oV>i ; men- 
tioned, 457, 478, 480, 481 ; action in 
court in regard to Stamp act, 573; 
committee to whom speech of Gov- 
ernor referred, 607; member of 
Commons vote on Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610 ; on committee 
to send for support of Wilkes, 663; 
mentioned, >M), 687; member of 
Council of Safety, 793. 

Parsons, Thomas, merchant of Lon- 
don, 85. 

Patent Offices, 98. 

Patroon, head boatman on a planta- 
tion, 51(!. 

Pawley, George, trustee for laying out 
Georgetown, i:'.9, 140. 

Pearce, Captain, Royal Navy, prom- 
ise.s Ogli'tliorpe tti assist in invasion 
of Florida, 194, 195 ; not consulted. 



202, 203; takes part in, 213, 220, 
222. 

Pearne v. Lisle, case of, quoted, 51, 
385. 

Pee Dee, townships on, 121; settle- 
ments on, 137. 

Peltry, trade in, 270. 

Pendleton, Henry, attorney at law, 
481. 

Pennsylvania, emigrants from, 136; 
contributions of Carolinians to Uni- 
versity of, 500. 

Pennsylvania, Governor of, men- 
tioned, 329. 

Percy, Rev. Dr. William, one of Lady 
Huntington's missionaries, takes 
part in Revolution, 450. 

Peronneau, Henry, petitions against 
incorporation of Charlestown, 42; 
treasurer, committed to jail for re- 
fusing to advance funds on order of 
Commons alone, 6i)4. 

Peronneau, James, barrister, 475. 

Peronneau. John, barrister, 475; peti- 
tions King against Boston Port Bill, 
733. 

Peronneau, Robert, Doctor of Medi- 
cine, 420. 

Perrin, French Protestant family of, 
370. 

Perry, John, heirs of, claim site of 
Georgetown, 140. 

Petigru, James L., lawyer, mentioned, 
370. 

Peyton, Captain Yelverton, Royal 
Navy, 195. 

Phepoe, Thomas, attorney at law, 
481. 

Philadelphia, export trade of, 766. 

Phillips, Eleazer, first printer in 
Carolina, 14(i ; death of. Ibid. 

Phoenix. Man-of-war, 195, 213. 

Physicians, the tirst professional men 
in (,'arolina, 413 ; sketches of several 
eminent, 413, 414, 415, 416. 

Pickens, Andrew, mentioned, 316; 
otiticer in Carolina regiment iu ex- 
pedition against Cherokees, 350; 
member of Mount Zion Society, 503. 

Pickens. County of, mentioned, 347. 

Pickens, the family of, lirst settle in 
the Wa.\.haws, 316. 



INDEX 



887 



Ficolata, Florida, fort at, attacked by 
Lienteiiaiit Dunbar, lilO; surprised 
and burnt, Ibid. ; mentioned, 19;_>, 
201. 

Pinckney, Charles, Son of Thomas, 
drafts and presents report of com- 
mittee of Commons on right of 
Council to amend tax bills, 173, 174 ; 
thanked by Commons for same, 174 ; 
on committee to examine prece- 
dents, 175; makes report therei)n, 
17(); mentioned, 181 ; contributes to 
support of schools for negroes, 246 ; 
appointed Chief Justice, but made to 
give place to Peter Leigh, 279, 280, 
281; mentioned, 4tj5, 470, 473, 474, 
47.-), 481, 495, ,5:«, 795. 

Pinckney, Colonel Charles. Son of 
William, mentioned, 372, 457, 473, 
474, 480, 481 ; contributes to support 
of College at Philadelphia, 500 ; men- 
tioned, 533; his position in regard 
to Revolution, 557 ; action in court 
in regard to Stamp act, 573; me- 
chanics oppose him, but is elected 
to the Commons, 604, 605 ; committee 
to whom speech of Governor is re- 
ferred, 607 ; vote in regard to Massa- 
chusetts Anti-rescinders, 610; pre- 
sides over meeting under Liberty 
Tree, 674; on committee to prepare 
protest upon violation of Non-impor- 
tation Agreement by other colonies, 
681; mentioned, 712. 737; proposed, 
but defeated for General Congress, 
741; mentioned, 754; President Pro- 
visional Congress, 762; appoints 
Secret Service Committee, 786; 
present at seizure of arms, 787 ; 
resigns presidency of Congress, 792 ; 
member of Ciuneil of Rufety, 793. 

Pinckney. Charles, Son of foregoing, 
pr iiiiiiii'iii ill llrvi'liilion party. "iS". 

Pinckney. Charles Cotesworth, Son of 
Chief Justice Charles, mentioned, 
4.-)7, 474, 475, 480, 481 ; sent to Eng- 
land for his education, 495; mem- 
ber of Mount Zion Society, .503 ; 
prominent in revolutionary party, 
537 ; appears in General Assembly, 
6.59; mentioned, 79(j. 

Pinckney, Eliza, introduces the cul- 



ture of indigo, 267, 268, 269, 270; 
her lett(\rs, 5.3(). 

Pinckney, Roger, mentioned, 4f)5-467; 
comes out from England as assignee 
of patent of Provost Marshal, 628; 
correspondence with Kidiard Cum- 
berland about purchase of patent 
by province, 628, (529, 630, 638, (i39 ; 
Powell, the printer, committed to 
the charge of, 716. 

Pinckney, Thomas, Son of Chiefs Jus- 
tice Charles, mentiouefI7~^57, 474; 
sent to England for his education, 
495; active in revolutionary party, 
557; petitions King upon Boston 
Port Bill, 733; mentioned, 706. 

Pinckney, William, Son of Thomas, 
the emigrant, on committee of Com- 
mons to report on Oglethorpe's ex- 
pedition, 199. 

Pinckney, William, Son of ahove, 
organizes first fire insurance com- 
pany in America, 532. 

Pindar, George, attorney general, 459. 

Pitch, exportation of, (iO, 126. 

Pitt, Hon. William, mentioned, 478, 
479, 557 ; opposes Stamp act, 583, 584 ; 
statue of, ordered by Commons, 584, 
586; statue of, arrives and is raised 
with great rejoicing, 677, 678; in- 
scription upon, 678. 

Plumstead, Thomas, merchant of 
London, .S5. 

Poaug, John, member of Commons, 
vote in regard to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610 ; committee on 
Governor's message in regard to 
quartering of troops, 618. 

Poinsett. Joel, petitions against in- 
corimration of Charlestown, 42. 

Poinsett. Mrs., coffee-house, 606. 

Pon Pon, Tresbyterian Church at. 441. 

Pope, Barnaby, mentioned. (VX-y. 

Popple. Alured. Sec Board of Trade. 

Population, estimates of, tiO; loss of, 
116; fresh tides of, 117; measures 
for the increase of, 121, 122 ; Gov- 
ernor Glen's report on, 183, 273 ; 
relative divisions of, 274; increase 
of, .377. .-.9.3. 

Porcher. Isaac, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486. 



\ 



838 



INDEX 



Porcher, Peter, barrister, 475 ; sub- 
scriber to Ludlam school fund, 48(5; 
on general committee Non-importa- 
tion Association, G51. 
Porcher, Sachel, subscriber to Lud- 
lam school fund, 4S(j. 
Pouderous, Kev., Commissary Bull's 

report in regard to, 4oG. 
Powell, George Gabriel, assistant 
judge, sits in case of habeas corpufi 
and joins Lowndes in releasing 
Powell, the printer, from arrest, 717 ; 
presides over first Provincial Con- 
gress, 734; chairmau of committee 
which divides up county into elec- 
tion districts, 758. 

Powell, Thomas, printer, arrest of, by 
Council, and habeas corpus proceed- 
ings thereon, 715, 71G, 717, 718, 719, 
720, 721. 

Pownal, Rev. Benjamin, Commissary 
Bull's report in regard to, 4.36. 

Pownal, Thomas, appointed Gt)vernor, 
:i45. 

Presbjrterians, Commissary Bull's re- 
port in regard to, 435 ; church estab- 
lished, 441 ; first Presbyterian Church 
separate from Congregationalists, 
443; Presbyterian clergymen as 
teachers, 501. 

Price, Hopkins, nominated by the 
mechanics for the Commons, 604. 

Price, John, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, 651. 

Price, William, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, 651. 

Prince Frederick s Parish, estab- 
lished, 138, 4;i7. 

Prince George, Fort, built at Keowee, 
.-.OS, 332, 33!). 

Prince George's Parish, Winyaw, es- 
tablished, 138; Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to (styled therein 
King George's Parish), 436. 

Princeton, contributions of Caro- 
linians to college at, 440, .500. 

Pringle, James, of Iri,sli Protestant 
Cdlouy, l.">2. 

Pringle. John Julius, barrister, 475. 

Pringle, Robert, contributor to school 
for negroes, 246 ; successful mer- 
chant, 407 ; assistant judge, 470. 



Pringle, Robert, Son of above, Doctor 
of Medicine, 420. 

Print, William, attorney at law, 481. 

Printing Press, introduction of, in 
colony, 144, 145, 146. 

Prioleau, Col. Samuel, vestryman St. 
Philip's Church, 100. 

Prioleau, Elias, member of grand 
jury, 65. 

Prioleau, Rev. Elias, mentioned, 
100, 

Proceedings of the People, 1. 

Proprietary Government, overthrow 
of, 1; case against, 2; difference 
between that and Royal government, 
24, 25 ; hopes of Proprietors for re- 
establishment of, 69 ; apply to his 
Majesty for appointment of several 
ofScers, 72. 

Proprietors, surrender of charter of, 
4,5,72,80,91. 

Proprietors, Lords, case against, 2; 
title of soil in, 4. 

Prorogation, distinction between, and 
adjournment, 28, 29. 

Prosperity of Province, 376, 377, 378, 
513. 

Provost Marshal, salary of, 97 ; office 
of, its history, 98, 99; mentioned, 
461 ; cause of trouble in the up 
country, 593, 5!)4 ; struggle over the 
abolition of office of, 626, 627, 628 
629, (5.30 ; office abolished, 642. 

Purcell, Rev. Dr. Henry, takes part in 
Revolution, 450. 

Purry, Jean Pierre, negotiation with 
Projirietors for grant of lands for 
Swiss colony, 79, 80 ; statements of, 
in regard to Carolina, 123, 124, 125, 
12(;, 445. 

Purrysburg. Township of, 121, 127. 

Quakers, Conunissary Bull's report in 
regard to church of, 435. 

Quarantine Acts, .3(5. 
Quartering of Troops, resistance to, in 
New York and Boston, 591 ; Gov- 
ernor Montagu's message in regard 
thereto, 617; Commons' reply thereto, 
(518, 619, 620. 
Quash, Robert, Jr., member of Com- 
mons, vote in regard to Massachu- 
setts Anti-rescinders, 610. 



INDEX 



839 



Quebec, victory at, r!20. 

Queenstown, or Queensboro Town- 
ship, r_'i. 

Quincy, Josiah, Jr., his description of 
Cliristopher Gadsden, ;i74 ; his jour- 
nal quoted, 3H4, 522, 528, 529, 705; 
prophecy related by, and its fullil- 
inent, T0(>, 707. 

Babiero. Don Joseph de, confers with 
President Middletou as to boundaries 
between Florida and South Carolina, 
75. 

Kailroads, system of, follows Indian 
trails, :!00. 

Ramsay, Dr. David, Doctor of Medi- 
cine, 420; .sketch of, 420, 421, 422. 

Randolph, Edward, opposition to the 
Froprictt)rs, 1. 

Randolph, Peyton, Speaker House of 
Burgesses, Virginia, letter of, to Mr. 
Speaker Manigault, 59S, 509, 621. 

Rantowle, Alexander, moves to break 
through Non-iniportatiou Agree- 
ment, two. 

Raven, John, member of grand jury, 
65 n. 

Ravenel, Daniel, breeder of race- 
horses, 522; mentioned, 593. 

Ravenel, Harriet Horry, authoress, 
5:56. 

Ravenel, James, mentioned, 593. 

Read, Jacob, attorney at law, 481 ; 
petitions King upon Boston Port 
Bill. 733. 

Redemptioners, 129. 

Register of Conveyances, 47. 

Regulators, or Scovilities, origin and 
organization of, (I'M, tir.S, 639, (;40. 

Reid, James, member of Commons, 
vote in regard to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610. 

Religious Denominations, proportions 
of, 274, 448, 449. 

Remington, John, attorney at law, 
4S1. 

Revenue Act. passed in pursuance of 
Declaratory act, 592; no repeal of, 
(544 ; opoosition to, 645, 646, 647, 648, 
649, 6.")0, 651, 652, 653, ()54, 655, 65t!, 
657, 658. 

Rhett. Colonel William, prophecy of, 
3; mentioned, 24, 32, 33; quarrels 



with Governor Nicholson and with 
Moore, 55, 56; his death, 56, 57; 
mentioned, 62, 69, 101. 

Rice, exportation of, 61 ; allowed to 
be shipped south of Cape Finisterre, 
109, 126, 143; Governor Glen's ac- 
count and statistics of, 2(52, 263, 264, 
265, 266 ; inland cultivation of, 386 : 
system of drainage, 387; crude mills 
for cleaning, 387 ; rewards offered 
for invention of better, .388; statis- 
tics of exportation of, 389, 390, 391, 
396, 397 ; excepted from Non-impor- 
tation Agreement by General Con- 
gress, action of Provincial Congress 
thereon, 764, 765, 7(56, 767, 768, 76:i, 
770. 

" Rice Orders," as currency, 13; men- 
tioned, 39. 

Richardson, Rev. William, story of, 
in connection with Rev. Archibald 
Simpson, 452 ; goes as missionary to 
Cherokees, 452, 453 ; comes to Caro- 
lina, meets Mr. Simpson, 453; in 
charge of church at Waxhaws, 453, 
454. 

Richardson, Richard, mentioned, 6.38 ; 
member of Provincial Congress, 762. 

Richland County, mentioned. 294, 307. 

Rind, Dr., quarantine officer, 429. 

Risbee, Colonel Joseph, mentioned, 62. 

Rivers, Robert, member of Commons, 
610. 

Rodd, George, attorney general, 459. 

Rogers, TJz, one of the Liberty Tree 
party, 591. 

Rombert, Peter. See Dutartre Trag- 
edy. 

Roper, William, mentioned, 373; at- 
torney at law, 481. 

Rose, Dr., mentioned, 413. 

Rothmaller, John, committed by 
Commons' House of Assembly, 152. 

Roupel, George Boone, barrister, 475. 

Royal Government, difference be- 
tween, and Proprietary govern- 
ment, 24, 25 ; character of, 93, 94, 
95. 9(5, 97, 98, 99. r, , 

Ruge)iy, Rowland, returned as mem- ^\ 
ber of Provincial Congress from 
Broad and Saluda, 7(51 ; supports 
Gadsden in case of the landing of 



840 



INDEX 



etn-tain horses under Non-importa- 
tion Agreement, 77<j. 

Rum, importation of. 

Eutledge, Andrew, settles in Charles- 
town, 141 ; oil committee to examine 
journals as to right of Council to 
amend money bill, 175; mentioned, 
240; lawyer, founds family, 474; 
represents Wliitetield before eccle- 
siastical court, 474; mentioned, aoo. 

Kutledge, Andrew, son of Dr. John, 
merchant. 141, 400, 407. 

Eutledge, Andrew, dancing master, 
4;)2. 

Kutledge, Dr. John, settles in prov- 
ince, 141 ; mentioned, 414, 474. 

Kutledge, Edward, son of Dr. John, 
meuti(ined,414, 417; attorney at law, 
480, 4S1 : makes his appearance as 
counsel for Powell, the printer, in 
habeas corpus case, 716, 717, 718, 
719, 720, 721; sent to General Con- 
gress, 741 ; returned as member of 
Provincial Congress for Ninety-six, 
TIJl; supports John Rutledge in ex- 
ception of rice from Non-importa- 
tion Agreement, 767 ; letter to Ralph 
Izard, supports general committee 
in case of the landing of certain 
horses under Non-importation Agree- 
ment. 776; mentioned, 7ii6. 

Kutledge, Hugh, son of Dr. John, 
mciilioned, 414; attorney at law, 
480, 481 ; educated in England, 495; 
mentioned, 796. 

Kutledge, John, son of Dr. John, 
mentioned, 141, 37-'\ 414 ; letter to 
his brother Edward, 477 ; mentioued, 
478, 480,481; educated in England, 
495; drafts bill for founding a col- 
lege, 498, 499; mentioned, 523; op- 
poses Stamp act, 557 ; appointed 
member of Congress, called by 
Massachusetts, 56."; action of, in 
court in regard to Stamp act, 573; 
requested to sit for his picture, 586; 
mentioned, 587; committee to whom 
Governor's speech referred, 607; 
vote of, in i-egard to Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610 ; on committee 
to prepare protest upon violation 
of Non-importation Agreement by 



other colonies, 681 ; mentioned, 687, 
689, 717, 737; sent to General Con- 
gress, 741 ; mentioned, 7()1; upon his 
motion in General Congress, rice 
excepted from Non-import.ation 
Agreement, 764 ; his defence of, 
765, 76<); supjjorts general commit- 
tee in case of the landing of cer- 
tain horses under Non-importation 
Agreement, 777; mentioned, 789. 796. 

Kutledge, Thomas, son of Dr. John, 
mciil idiu'd, 141. 

Sachiverell, Thomas, one of the 
fdLuiders of Charlestown Library, 
510. 

Salaries and Fees of Officers, 97, 273. 

Sally George, The Ship, case of, for 
violating Non-importatiou Agree- 
ment, 670. 

Saluda, Old Town, mentioned, 306, 
;;o9, 323. 

Salzburghers, pass through Charles- 
town (in way to Georgia, 445. 

Sanders, William, attorney general, 
4.".9. 

Savage, Edward, assistant judge, 
4(i9; Judge of .Admiralty. 

Savage, Jeremiah, member of Com- 
mons, 610. 

Savage, Thomas, nominated by the 
mechanics for the Commons, 604; 
vote in regard to Massachusetts 
ATiti-rcscinders, 610. 

Savannah, settlement of, 164, 165. 

Savannah River, townships on, 121. 

Saxby. George, one of committee of 
Council to reply to remonstrance of 
Commons, 288; house searched for 
stamps, 5()6, 567 ; arrives with 
stami>s, forced to decline to act as 
distributer. .'^70, 571, 572. 

Saxe-Gotha Township, 122. 

Sayre, Stephen, petitions King upon 
Hostcni Port IJill. 73:;. 

Schenkingh, Benjamin, member of 
Council, (JS. 

Schools, advertisements in relation to, 
for various arts, sciences, accom- 
plishments. See Free Schools, 4!X), 
491, 492. 4! a 

Scotch Irish, from Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, 122, 123, 294 ; sketch of, 311 ; 



INDEX 



841 



comp into South Carolina, 312 : diflfi- 
ciilties witli which they met, .'Uo, 
;{14 ; distinguished men of, 31(5; 
families of, settle in South Carolina, 
317, 318; principles of, 319, 320; 
troubles of, on the frontier, 623, 624, 
(;2.'). 

Scotland, emigrants from, 122; settle 
on I'l-e Dee, l-i7. 

Scott, John, attorney at law, 481. 

Scott. Joseph, pauper, order of court 
ill regiiril to, 473. 

Scott. William, mentioned, 373 ; mem- 
lior of Commons, vote in regard to 
Massachusetts Anti-rescinders. (ilO. 

Scovilities, or Regulators. See Regu- 
lators. 

Scriven, Rev. Elisha, grants laud for 
town of (leorgetown, i::;), 140. 

Scriven, Rev. William, mentioned, 
loll. 

Scriven, Robert, plantation opposite 
(Tcorgetown. 140. 

Scrivener, Dr. William, mentioned, 
413. 

Searl. Thomas, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 501. 

Serre, Noah, member of grand jury, 
*).') /(. 

Settico. Indian town, .3.30. 

Shaw, Lieutenant Lachlan, St. Au- 
gustine exjiedition, marches M'ith 
Governor Lyttleton against Chero- 
kecs, .3.")"). 

Sheed. George, member of Commons, 
(ill). 

Sheldon Church, burial place of Will- 
iam Bull, its interesting history, 
202 II. 

Shelton, Richard, presents memorial 
to Commissioners of Trade against 
incorporation of Charlestown, 43. 

Shinner, Charles, Chief Justice, his 
appoiiitiiiciit and character, 465, 
46(), 4(i7 ; is suspended, 46.S ; house 
searched for stamps, .5()!); adjourns 
court for want of stamps, 572, 573. 

Shirley, Thomas, on general commit- 
tee iSon-imi)ortation Association, 
(i.-.l. 

Shubrick, Richard, merchant of Lon- 
don, Ho. 



Shubrick. Richard, barrister, 475. 

Shubrick, Thomas, barrister, 475. 

Silk, exportation of, 60 ; bounty on the 
cnllivation of, (JIS. 

Simmons, John, petitions against in- 
corporation of Charlestown, 42. 

Simonds, Captain, Royal Navy, 105. 

Simons, Captain, Benjamin, com- 
mands posse to arrest Dutartres and 
is killed, 58, 59. 

Simons, Eben, mentioned, 873. 

Simons, James, attorney at law, 481. 

Simons, Thomas, barrister, 475. 

Simpson, Rev. Archibald, interesting 
st(iry, 4.">2. 453. 

Simpson, James, attorney general. 481. 

Simpson, William, Chief Justice, 465. 

Simpson. William, barrister, 475. 

Sinclair, John, one of the founders of 
Charlestown Library Society, 510. 

Singleton, Mathew, member of Pro- 
vincial Congress, 762. 

Singleton, Rebecca, sub.scriber to Lud- 
laui school fund. 486. 

Singleton, Richard, subscriber to Lud- 
1am sclidol fund, '486. 

Singleton, Thomas, subscriber to Lud- 
1am school fund, 486. 

Sinkler, Peter, member of Commons, 
610. 

Skedday, Robert, lectures on Elec- 
tricity, 403. 

Skene, Alexander, negroes of, baptized 
50; member of Council, 65; one of 
the Council commits Landgrave 
Smith, 81 ; member of Council, 107, 
153; trustee of free school, 487; 
mentioneil, 712. 

Skijagustah, Indian chief, speech of, 
to King George, 105. 

Skins of Animals, exportation of, (30, 
120, 270. 271, 380. 

Skirving, James, Jr., member of Com- 
mons, waits on Governor with mes- 
sage, 608; votes on Massachusetts 
Anti-rescinders, 610. 

Skottowe, Thomas, member of Coun- 
cil, resents appropriation of funds 
to Wilkes's support, (>83. 

Slavery. See Negro slaves. 

Smallpox, its appearance in 1737, 
inoculation introduced, 180; preva- 



842 



INDEX 



lence and treatment of, 423, 424, 425, 
42ti, 427, 428, 429. 

Smith, Benjamin, contributes to school 
for negroes, 246 ; mentioned, 372 ; 
merchant, 400, 406, 407 ; assistant 
judge, 470; subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486; mentioned, 512, 
533; opens court adjourned by Cliief 
Justice Shinner for want of stamps, 
573, 574. 

Smith, Benjamin, barrister, 475. 

Smith, Dr. George, takes degree in 
medicine in Edinburgh, 417, 418. 

Smith, Henry, subscriber to Ludlam 
schof)! fund, 486. 

Smith, James, barrister, 475. 

Smith, Rev. Josiah, takes part in con- 
troversy between Whitefield and 
Commissary Garden, 2.36, 237 ; letter 
approving Bishop of London's pas- 
toral in regard to negro slaves, 244; 
called to Congregational Church, 
Charlestown, 442; at Cainhoy, 445; 
mentioned, 455. 

Smith, Rev. Robert, supervises school 
for negroes, 247 ; succeeds Mr. 
Garden as rector of St. Philip's, 440 ; 
his conduct during the Revolution, 
450; preaches before the Provincial 
Congress, 782. 

Smith, Richard, member of grand 
jury, (i5. 

Smith, Roger, on general committee 
Non-importation Association, 651. 

Smith, Thomas Landgrave (1st), men- 
tioned, 62. 

Smith, Thomas Landgrave (2d), com- 
mitted by Alexander Skene as 
leader in struggle over the cur- 
rency, 81 ; resolution of Commons 
in regard to, 82 ; memorial of, 83 ; 
subscriber to Ludlam school fund, 
486. 

Smith, Thomas, contributions to Col- 
lege at Philadelphia, 500. 

Smith, Thomas (Broad Street), nomi- 
nated by the mechanics for the Com- 
mons, 604; l)ut defeated, 605. 

Smith, William, member of grand jury, 
65. 

Smith, William, barrister, 475. 

Smith, William, judge, 316. 



Smith, Rev. Dr. William, solicitor for 
College of I'hiladi'lphia, 500. 

Society, the Condition of, 513; fond- 
ness of Bi'itish manners, 513, 514, 
515; households organized on Eng- 
lish models, 515, 516; coachman, 
butler, and patroon, 516, 517 ; a 
plantation a community in itself, 
517 ; Carolinians devoted to field 
sports, 517 ; introduction of horses 
and their breeds, 517, 518 ; deer 
hunting, 510 ; horse-racing, 520, 521, 
522,523, ,524,525; concerts, 526 ; first 
theatre in America, 526; theatrical 
performances, 526, 527, 528; music, 
St. Cecilia Society, 529; charitable 
societies, 530, 531; fire insurance, 
first in America, 532; taverns, 532; 
court circle, ,532, 5,33, 534; convivial 
parties, 5-35; diaries, 535, 536; Eliza 
Piiickney's letters, 536; intercourse 
with Europe, 536, 5;)7, 538 ; developed 
condition of, 539, 540. 

Somers, Mr., accompanies Mr. Gads- 
den to take State oaths, 357. 

South Carolina Gazette, first news- 
paper pul>lished in South Carolina, 
146, 147. 

South Carolina Society, its origin and 
school, 489, 490. 

Spaniards, apprehension of invasion 
by, 5 ; renewed hostilities of, 187, 188, 
189. 

Spartanburg County, mentioned, 294, 
307. 

Speedwell, The Ketch. 567. 

Spruce, The Sloop-of-war, 195. 

Squirrel, The Man-of-war, 195, 213. 

St. Andrew's Hunting Club, 520. 

St. Andrew's Parish, members of 
Commons for, 37 ; Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to, 435. 

St. Andrew's Society, 530. 

St. Augustine, Florida, castle of, 201. 

St. Augustine, Florida, Oglethorpe's 
expedition against. See Oglethorpe. 

St. Bartholomew's Parish, member of 
Commons for, 38 ; Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to, 437. 

St. Cecilia Society, origin of, 528. 

St. David's Parish, established, 138, 
438. 



INDEX 



843 



St. David's Society, organized, 503; 

school of, o04. 

St. Dennis, Parish of, Commissary 
Buir.s report in regard to, 4'M. 

St. Francis, Fort, Florida, taken by 
Oglethorpe, 1!)0. 

St. George, Fort, rendezvous Ogle- 
thorpe's forces upon invasion of 
Florida, 201. 

St. George's Parish, member of Com- 
mons for, ;?7 ; taken from St. An- 
drews, 66 ; Commissary Bull's report 
in regard to, 4.'->.T. 

St. George's Society, organized, 530. 

St. Helena's Parish, member of Com- 
mons for, 38; Commissary Bull's re- 
port in regard to, 437. 

St. James's, Goose Creek, member of 
Commons for, 37 ; Commissary Bull's 
reports in regard to, 435. 

St. James's, Santee Parish, member of. 
Commons for, 38; Winyaw taken 
from, 13S ; Commissary Bull's report 
in regard to, 436. 

St . John's, Colleton Parish, established , 
138; Commissary Bull's report in re- 
gard to, 437. 

St. John's, Lutheran congregation or- 
ganized and church dedicated, 44(5. 

St. John's Parish, Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to, 4-35, 436. 

St. John's River, Florida, 201. 

St. Julien, Peter de, assists in settling 
Savannah, Ut5; his jilace near Dor- 
chester camping ground of caravans, 
290. 

St. Luke's Parish, established, 138, 438. 

St Matthew's Parish, established, 138. 

St. Mark's Parish, established, 138, 
43!l; frontier parish, 623. 

St. Mark's River, Florida, 200. 

St. Mary's River, Florida, 115. 

St. Michael's Parish, e.stabli,shed,275; 
church built, 275, 276; story of the 
bells, 276, 439. 

St. Paul's, member of Commons for, 
38; inhabitants of, apply for assist- 
ance, (i6; Commissary Bull's report 
in regard to, 4.37. 

St. Peter's Parish, member of Com- 
mons for, 37; established, 138, 4.37. 

St. Philip's Parish, new church of, 



proposed to be called St. George's 
Church, 40; first services in, 41, 42, 
99 ; register of births, marriages, and 
deaths, 100; minister of vestry, 100; 
municipal duties of wardens of, 100, 
101 ; vestry distribute contributions 
after great fire of 1740, 240; in- 
habitants of, become too numerous, 
division of, 275 ; Commissary Bull's 
report in regard to, 4.34, 435. 

St. Philip's Church, mentioned, 42, 99, 
315, 439. 

St. Stephen's Parish, established, 138. 

St. Thomas's Parish, Commissary 
Bull's reports in regard to, 4.36. 

St. Thomas and St. Dennis, members 
of Commons for, 37, 38. 

Stamp Act, agitation over, begun, 540 ; 
questions as to its constitutionality, 
549, 550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 5.55, 556, 
557 ; action of Massachusetts in rela- 
tion to, 560; Lieutenant Governor 
Bull gives notice of, 560, 561 ; reso- 
lutions of Commons in regard to, 
5(>0, 561, 562, 563; action of people 
in Charlestown in regard to, 563, 
564, 565, .5(36, 567, .5(;8, 5()9, 570, 571, 
572, 573, 574, .575 ; attracts but little 
attention in England, 579, 580; sur- 
prise in England at opposition to, in 
America, .580, 581 ; Barre's speech in 
regard to, 579, 580 ; position of mem- 
bers of Parliament in regard to, 
582, 583, 584; act repealed, 584; re- 
joicing thereat, 586, 587 : celebration 
of the anniversary of, 613, 614. 

Stanway, James, appointed naval 
officer of Proprietors, 72. 

Stanyarne, Archibald, member of 
Commons, vote in regard to Massa- 
chusetts Anti-rescinders, 610. 

Sterling. See Currency. 

Sterling, Henry, first settler in 
Orangeburg, 128. 

Stevenson, Charles, one of the found- 
ers of Charlestown Library, 510. 

Stewart, Rev. Hugh, first minister of 
Presbyterian Church in Charlestown, 
443. 

Stobo, Rev. Archibald, establishes 
Presbyterian Church in Carolina, 
441,444. 



844 



INDEX 



Stono Troop of Horse, accompanies 
Goveruor Glen upon expeditiuu 
against Cherokees, 335. 

Strahan, Mr., clerk of admiralty, 
death of, 180. 

Strother, William, founder of Mount 
Zion Society, 502. 

Stuart, Captain John, second in 
ciimmand at Fort Loudon, made 
prisoner by Indians, rescued by 
Attakullakulla, 347, 348, 349. 

Stuart, John, barrister, 475. 

Stumpels, colony of Germans, arrive 
in Gharlestown, and are settled in 
Abbeville, 307, 368. 

Sumter, Thomas, first mention of, 634 ; 
member of Provincial Congress, 762. 

Swinton, William, trustee for laying 
out Georgetown, 139, 140. 

Swiss Colony of Purrysburg, 121; 
their religious tenets, 126 ; their un- 
fortunate location and distress, 127 ; 
ends in disaster, 128. 

Switzers, settle in Orangeburg, 122, 129. 

Talbot, Lord, opinion as to effect of 
baptism of negro slaves, 49. 

Tamplet, Peter, subscriber to Ludlam 
school fund, 486. 

Tar, exportation of, 60. 

Tar and Feather, threat of, by non- 
importers, (.i70, (>72. 

Tartar, The Man-of-war, 195. 

Tax, Goveruor Glen reports none on 
real or personal estate, 273. See 
Negro Slaves. 

Tax Bills, controversy in regard to. 
See Commons and Council. 

Taylor, Colonel Thomas, one of the 
founders of the Mount Zion Society, 
502 ; member of Provincial Congress, 
7(i2. 

Taylor, Rev. Samuel, report as to 
instruction of negroes, 49. 

Taylor, Peter, legacy to free school, 
48.") ; sul)scriber to Ludlam school 
fund, 486. 

Tea, duties on, reserved, upon repeal 
of others, 724 ; drawback on, allowed 
East India Company, 725 ; arrival of 
chests of, in Gharlestown, 725; ac- 
tion upon, by people, 72(), 727, 728; 
chests of, thrown into the river, 755. 



Tebout, Tunis, one of the Liberty Tree 
party, .5'.il. 

Teburt, Tunis, on general commit- 
tee Non-imiKjrtation Association, 
651. 

Tennent, Rev. William, Congrega- 
tional minister, 455; supports Gads- 
den in opposition to exception of 
rice from Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 767 ; supports Gadsden in case 
of the lauding of certain horses 
under the Non-importation Agree- 
ment, 77(). 

Tennessee. Indian town, 332. 

Tequo. Indian town, 332. 

Territory, of South Carolina, descrip- 
tion of, 117, 118, 119, 120. 

Theatre, the first in America, 526,527, 
52S. 

Thomas, Rev. Samuel, instruction of 
negroes, 49. 

Thompson, William, early settler in 
Orangel)urg, 131; takes part in dis- 
persing regulators, 638. 

Thornwell, Rev. James, D.D., men- 
tioned as coming from the Waxhaws, 
31(;. 

Tiftoe, of Keowee, Indian chief visits 
Governor !\Iontagu, .5!t3. 

Timothy, Lewis, publisher of South 
(Janilina G.i-ctli'. U7. 

Timothy, Peter, Son of above, suc- 
ceeds his father as publisher of South 
Carolina Gazette, 147 ; takes part 
in controversy over inoculation, 424, 
425, 426; one of the founders of 
Gharlestown Library, 510 ; takes 
issue with Mr. Drayton about 
Wilkes's fund, 662; Secretary Pro- 
vincial Congress, 7(i2. 

Tobacco, as currency, 12, 13. 

Tolomato, or St. Mark's River, Flor- 
ida, 200. 

Tomotly, Indian town, 3.32. 

Tookerman, Richard, subscriber to 
Ludlam school fund, 48(5. 

Toomer, Henry, member of grand 
jury. 65. 

Townships, marked out, 121. 

Trade and Plantations, Board of, 
the actual government of the colo- 
nies, 92, 93. 






INDEX 



845 



Transhaw, Captain, Royal Navy, 195. 

Trapin, Paul, l);iriister, 475. 

Treason, proposal to send persons 
i'h;iri;eil with, to England lor trial, 
action of Virginia thereon, approved 
l)\ Conmions, (121. 

Trentham, Lord, mentioned in con- 
ne(!tit)u with Peter Leigh's appoint- 
ment as Cliief Justice, 280. 

Treyvant, Theodore, on general com- 
mittee Nou-iniportatiou Association, 
651. 

Trott, Nicholas, mentioned, 7, 24, 57, 
62, 69, 414, 459; his death, 46o; cor- 
rection by author as to his heing 
Governor of Bahama Island, 463. 

Troup, John, attorney at law, 481. 

Trusler, William, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 591 ; on general commit- 
tee Non-importation Association, 651. 

Turpentine, exportation of, 60. 

Turquand, Hev. Paul, mentioned, 448 ; 
member Froviucial Congress, 450; 
celebrates divine service hefore Pro- 
vincial Congress, 7(>S. 

Tynte, Governor Edward, mentioned, 
4. 

Tyrrel, Captain Warren, lieutenant 
Royal Navy, gisen command of 
schooner furnislied l)y South Caro- 
lina for invasion of Florida, 197. 

Union County, mentioned, 294, .'W. 

Upper Country of Carolina, descrip- 
tion of, 294, 295, 296; disturbed con- 
dition of. m:;, 594, 595. 

Upper House. Sec Council. 

Usury, act against, S, it ; reiinacted, 36. 

Vander Dussen, Alexander, colonel of 
Soutli Carolina regiment in Ogle- 
thorpe's e.xpeilition to Florida, 196, 
197, 202, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 
212, 213, 214, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 
22;i, 225. 226, 227. 229. 

Vanderhorst, Colonel John, gives 
laud tu Miiuiit Zinn Society, ,503. 

Varnod. Rev. James, report as to 
religious instruction of negroes, 50; 
Commissary Bull's report in regard 
to, 435. 

Vaughn, Samuel, committed by Com- 
mons' House of Assembly, sues 
out /iubeas corpus, 152 ; struggle 



over, 153, 1.54, 155, 156, 157, 158; 
is released, 159; mentioned, 161. 

Veitch, George, appropriation to, for 
a mai'liine for pounding rice, 388. 

Vernon, Francis, trustee of free 
school, 487. 

Verree, Joseph, one of the Liberty 
Tree party, 590; on general com- 
mittee Non-importation Association, 
651. 

Vessels, number of, Governor Glen's 
rei)ort on, 264. 

Villepontoux, Peter, member of 
grand jury, t)5 n. 

Villepontoux, Zack, subscriber to 
Ludlain school fund, 486. 

Virginia, Lieutenant Governor Bull 
appeals to, for assistance, 346; cir- 
cular letter of House of Burgesses 
of, 598, 599, 600. 

Waccamaw, or Wackamaw River, 
mentioned in relation to boundary 
between North and South Carolina, 
110, 111, 112, 113; township on, 
121. 

Wadmalaw Island, made part of St. 
John's Parish, Colleton, 138. 

Wales, emigrants from, 122. 

Wallace, William, member grand 
jury, 65 n. 

Walpole, Sir Robert, opposed to war 
with Siiain, 188. 

Walton, William, barrister, 475. 

Wando, Prt-cinct Court at, 45. 

Ward, John, mechanics nominate him 
for Commons, but is defeated, 605 ; 
on general committee Non-importa- 
tion Association, (551. 

Ward, Joshua, attorney at law, 481. 

Waring, Benjamin, trustee of free 
school, 487; member of Commons, 
vote on Massachusetts Anti-rescind- 
ers, 610. 

Waring. Thomas, member of Council, 
107-153; trustee of free .school, 487; 
mentioned, 712. 

Warren. Captain, Royal Navy, prom- 
ises Ogletborpe to assist in invasion 
of Florichi, 194. 195. 

Warren, Rev. Samuel F., takes part 
in iievohUion, 450. 

Wassamasaw, Precinct Court at, 44 ; 



THE 

Economic History of Virginia 



IN THE 



Seventeenth Century 
By PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE 

Two Vols. 8vo. Price, $6.00 



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Mr. Bruce has done a good work for Virginia, of which the Virginians may well be 
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

66 Fifth Avenue 

NEW YORK 



THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 

UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT, 
idjo-i'jig. 



EDWARD MCCRADY, 

Vice-President of the Historical Society of South Carolina, 
Member of the Bar of Charleston, S.C. 



Crown 8vo. Cloth. Price, $3.50, net. 



The Introductory Chapter contains a valuable commentary on the different 
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the administrations of one Governor after another, Sir John Yeamans, William 
Sayles, Joseph West, Sir John again, Joseph West again (and by the way, 
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